Alex Hutchinson (video game director)

Alex Hutchinson is an Australian video game director and designer. He is best known for his work as the creative director for Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 4. After a long stint at Ubisoft,[1] he has since co-founded his own video game development company, Typhoon Studios.

Alex Hutchinson
Born
Australia
EducationMelbourne University
Occupation(s)Video game director and designer
Known forCo-founder of Typhoon Studios

Career

Hutchinson began his career in the games industry as a designer at Torus Games in Australia but quickly left for an opportunity at Electronic Arts subsidiary Maxis. There, he worked as a Lead Designer on the popular gaming series, The Sims, as well as leading the design on Spore.[2] In 2008, he moved to Canada to take on a role as Creative Director at EA Montreal, working on Army of Two: The 40th Day. He later transitioned to Ubisoft Montreal, where he served as Creative Director for Assassin's Creed III and Far Cry 4. Assassin's Creed III was showcased at E3 2012, and Far Cry 4 at E3 2014, where it was presented by Hutchinson himself.[3][4]

In 2017, Hutchinson co-founded Typhoon Studios, a video game studio based in Montreal, with his partners Yassine Riahi and Reid Schneider.[5] The studio gained attention when its first game, Journey to the Savage Planet, was announced at the 2018 Game Awards.[6] In December 2019, Google, under its Stadia brand, acquired Typhoon Studios.[5] Unfortunately, Typhoon Studios, along with Google's Stadia Games and Entertainment (SG&E) division, was shut down in February 2021. However, the development team behind Journey to the Savage Planet, including Hutchinson, Schneider, Yannick Simard, Erick Bilodeau, and Marc-Antoine Lussier, reunited and founded Raccoon Logic in 2021.[7]

Works
Video GamesYear ReleasedRole
The Sims 22004 & 2005Lead Designer
Spore2008Lead Designer
Army of Two: The 40th Day2010Creative Director
Assassin's Creed III2012Creative Director
Far Cry 42014Creative Director
Journey to the Savage Planet 2020 Creative Director

Controversies

On October 22, 2020, Alex Hutchinson tweeted the following:

The real truth is the streamers should be paying the developers and publishers of the games they stream. They should be buying a license like any real business and paying for the content they use.[8]

Which generated public backlash. Following, Google stated that what Hutchinson said does not represent the company's vision.[9]

References
  1. Francis, Hannah. "How Far Cry 4's Australian creative director Alex Hutchinson made it big at both EA and Ubisoft". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  2. Cherbak, Fiona. "Game Careers "Thought Leaders" series features Assassins Creed 3 Creative Director Alex Hutchinson". Game Careers. Archived from the original on 18 January 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  3. "Ubisoft E3 2012 Press Conference". YouTube. GameSpot. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  4. "Far Cry 4 Gameplay - E3 2014 Sony Press Conference". YouTube. GameSpot. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  5. Takahashi, Dean (19 December 2019). "Google buys triple-A game dev Typhoon Studio to beef up Stadia". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 27 December 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  6. Fogel, Stefanie (7 December 2018). "Typhoon Studios Reveals First Project 'Journey To The Savage Planet'". Variety. Archived from the original on 28 September 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2019.
  7. Kerr, Chris (11 August 2021). "Typhoon devs launch new studio, secure Savage Planet rights from Google". Gamasutra. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  8. Hutchinson, Alex. "Alex Hutchinson's tweet". Twitter. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  9. Batchelor, James. "Google distances itself from Stadia creative director Alex Hutchinson". gameindustry.biz. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
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