Cross-Generation Development an Enormous Complication, Says Ubisoft Massive

David Polfeldt, the managing director of Ubisoft Massive, doesn’t have to worry about bringing the graphically suburb The Division to every platform under the sun. It’s a true next-generation title, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t sympathize with those who have to develop their games for both new and old hardware. In his eyes, that’s a monumental task due to the uniqueness of each platform.

“It’s an enormous complication, because they’re quite different. The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 are quite similar, so if you’re generous, you could say that’s one project,” he told GamesBeat in an interview. “But PS3 would be another and 360 would be a third one.

“Of course it’s a great effort. We just skipped the current generation entirely. [Laughs] That allows us to focus on what the new generation is capable of doing. We’re able to be very specific with graphics, for instance, where we’re maxing out on next-gen in many areas. We couldn’t have done that if we had to take the current generation into account.”

The Division is one of the prettiest games coming to next-generation consoles, and while there aren’t 900 people currently working on the game, titles of this scope might need that much support down the road.