Playing Hard (2018) Movie Script
1
MAN: What happens when we die?
What will we leave behind?
Immortality comes when...
you give your people something
that they needed
that they didn't have,
and that they can keep
when you are gone.
That is how you...
How you survive your own death.
[menacing music plays]
So you want to be a knight, eh?
You've lived your whole life
inside these castle walls, yeah?
Run up here safe.
And now you come to me
and say that you want to pick up
a weapon and defend your people?
Do you know what's out there?
Wastelands, poisoned lakes,
starving barbarians.
We are going to ride out
and retake those lands.
Yes. Those lands were ours,
and they will be ours again.
But if you are going
to pick up a sword,
remember that it will be
for the rest of your life.
We have endless enemies
to fight.
We are far fewer
than we used to be,
but these are our lands.
So, pick up your sword,
learn to use it,
and ride out with us.
But don't expect to ride back.
You'll always be a warrior,
if you start down that road.
But for those who live:
Gold, plunder, power, glory.
So, are you with me?
Well, then come aboard.
[imitating gunshots]
[in French] The reality of the
video game - industry today is,
It's a savage industry where
only three percent of all games
earn 97 percent
of the total profits.
In all creative processes
they say,
"Oh, it's normal to fail.
We have fail camps and
we laugh about our failures."
But when you're living it...
[laughter in the audience]
...it's a bit less fun,
especially when you just burned
through ten million dollars.
It was two years of my life
we were working
on something magical
until we realized we weren't
going in the right direction.
[soft electronic music plays]
This is Yannis Mallat,
the CEO
of the Toronto, Montreal,
and Quebec City studios.
Does he want us
to get back on track?
Maybe he's telling himself,
this was expensive enough,
"You should go work
on an existing brand."
I convinced him to give
my team six months
to come up with a new proposal.
And after six months,
they would decide
if they pulled the plug
or continue to invest.
I was looking
for a Creative Director
that had a game in him.
This guy arrived
at the second meeting
with a wooden sword
he made when he was 14.
JASON: When I
started this project,
I was half convinced
that I was crazy.
I pitched this protect
for ten years,
and every single person that
I pitched it to had said no.
They'd said no.
"It's not interesting, it's not
going to work, I don't get it,
it's not cool." I was starting
to think I was crazy.
STPHANE: [in French]
I've known the pain of
having something not work out,
and I've been fool enough
to try again.
MAN: [in French]
Stphane, our producer.
Our pitch will be in a mix
of English and French,
because, in order to get
a good pitch from Jason,
we need English.
JASON: [in French] I could do
my pitch in French, but...
[in English] make no sense
at all. It would...
So, I've had a game in my head
for about 12 years now.
I actually wanted to play
this game
for much longer than that,
but the industry just kept
not making it. Right?
I would go to the store
every year, and it wasn't there.
And now I download,
and I'm like,
"Where is it?
It hasn't arrived."
So, that's this game.
Okay? This game is that.
When our player
was, you know,
eight years old or so, right?
He or she was in the backyard
and found a stick and...
[imitating sword fight]
And he could do it.
Couldn't put a ball
through a hoop, right?
Couldn't write his own name in his
handwriting - very well, right?
But... Cuk! Cuk! Cuk!
"All right, man!"
So, he did what any reasonable
eight-year-old would do,
is he went and found his brother
and beat the shit out of him
with it. Right?
[laughing] Right?
Later, in high school,
picks up a baseball bat.
Something moves.
What is that? Like...
That's a little scary.
It's like...
What is that thing? Hmm!
But, wow!
Hmm...
So, he puts it down and says,
"Fuck that, I am going
to go play video games."
[electronic music plays]
[in French] It's interesting
to link our three cultures
with musical genres.
[in English]
We're bringing the Super Bowl,
like, mood and adrenaline...
[music continuing]
[In French] Heavy metal fits
with the Vikings.
Rap is interesting
for the knights.
[in English] It's like
monster truck meets UFC.
It's loud, it's dangerous,
it's full of dust,
it's full of blood.
JASON: Knight,
Viking, or Samurai.
What kind of person are you?
What would you fight for?
Here we go!
[clapping]
[in French and English]
Pam, 360, let's go.
360, Nick, Olivier.
[in English]
First of all,
we wanted to solidify
the nucleus of the game,
which is the fight mechanics.
It's our biggest risk,
and the heart
and soul of this game,
and the business model
of this game.
JASON: We convinced the
company that we had an idea
about melee sword fighting
that was a completely new way
to play these games,
was a real breakthrough
in game play.
Instead of
the traditional approach
where we expect you
to memorize combinations,
the Art of Battle
puts your attention
on your enemy's weapon
as the most important thing
that matters.
And not just on
the weapon itself,
but on that weapon's position
in space.
Yannis was here to just see
the production.
The good news is,
he really asked to see Hero.
He was looking at it and...
We sold the meeting.
He went out happy.
That said, it doesn't bring
anything new to the project.
It was more a recognition tour.
[muted electronic music plays]
[in French]
With innovation comes risk.
The more innovation,
the greater the risk.
And the greater the risk,
the more likely it is
to collapse.
Because there are too many
forces pushing against
what the team wants to do,
whether it's the pressure
to attract talent and resources,
or it's doubt
because your competition
is doing something that works.
MAN: [in English]
One thing I will do very often
is update you on what's
happening on the marketing side.
I know we're not yet ready to go
out and say, "Hey, we exist."
But in two weeks from now,
we're going to have people
from Europe and San Francisco,
marketing people from Operational
Marketing - will come here.
We're going to present them
the game. They'll come and play.
[muted electronic music plays]
LUC: [in French]
We started with Jason's
pure vision, a blank slate,
we don't have a name, or a logo,
or a cover for the box.
We don't have a trailer.
Nothing exists.
Everything needs to be created.
[in English]
When you introduce a new brand,
we want to make sure
that we start with a message
that can be understood
and resonate
into as many players
as possible.
[in English]
Blade Masters, Blade Assault,
Warriors of Honor,
Eternal Honor,
Blade Warfare, Blade Assault.
[in French]
I talked with Creative Services
in San Francisco. This is what
they came up with.
[in English]
Force of Arms, Wrath of
the Warriors, Storm of Steel,
Blade Rivals, Burden of Steel,
Bloodsport...
JASON: We want to capture
the universal feeling
of the heroic moment,
the universal feeling
of what it's like to be
a warrior on a battlefield.
There! Yes!
[grunting]
The knight fantasy
of being a protector, right,
has always really hit me hard.
My mom was a big Rodgers
and Hammerstein fan.
Musicals, right?
And her favorite musical
was Camelot.
And so I grew up
watching Lancelot
singing about, you know,
being a valorous knight,
and that whole thing was sort
of where I got started,
you know, with this fantasy.
If you were really in trouble,
we were like...
You would try to... You would
try to follow it, right?
JASON: I think fantasy is a...
It's full of lessons
about what can be
and who we are.
My dad was a collector
of religions.
Uh, by the time I was 14,
I had been, I think,
seven different things.
We had been, you know,
Christian, Buddhist, atheist,
this one agnostic thing.
We had done pagan stuff.
We had done everything.
Zen, he was into meditation.
He did...
He was member of a cult,
he was...
He did... A religion
of the month club, man.
Watching shows or, you know...
I'm always watching them
with a purpose.
What's the statement
that's being made here?
I take in entertainment
like it was a philosophy,
like it was
a statement of philosophy.
Yeah, this one.
[sighing]
[honking]
[in French] Okay, girls, you're
going to have to hurry up
because Delphine, you forgot
your gymnastics leotard
at Mom's house.
So now we've got to go by
Mom's place to get it.
This is a disaster.
So I'm just going to eat supper
at seven o'clock when I arrive.
Come here.
[laughing]
GIRL: [in French]
Well, when you start the game,
you can choose either a normal
world or a magical world,
and you can have bad guys,
like monsters.
Before you're born,
you choose a power.
STPHANE: That's cool.
And you can be
a dragon trainer,
or the queen or king.
The world that you created
is a very expensive world.
You wouldn't want to make it
a bit cheaper?
Dad, your game isn't cheap, so
my game won't be cheap either.
[laughing]
[upbeat electronic music plays]
[chatter in background]
MAN: [in English] All right!
Yeah!
[cheering]
Welcome to Hall of Heroes, where the
tournament is - taking place right now.
STPHANE: [in French] There's no game on
the market - like the one we're producing.
We had to find a way to not
look too far ahead,
but be sure that we were moving
full-speed ahead.
We started integrating
game sessions
into our development process.
[in English]
Back! Back! Back!
JASON: Every milestone
is one of these, right?
Where everyone gets together
on the team, and we make teams,
and we just beat the holy hell
out of each other, right?
We have a great time doing it.
I'm here with Jason
"The Dark Lord" VandenBerghe.
I want to get your impressions.
That was madness!
The competition
forces us to engage
with the game 100 percent,
and what happens is,
we find all the bugs,
we find out what's wrong,
we find out
if it's unfair, right?
Oh, he just took
the tower, guys!
JASON: Because after a
tournament like this,
the teams that lost,
they're going to be...
They're going to say, if there
was a reason that they lost,
if the game was unfair,
they're going to say,
"Well, it was unfair for
this reason and this reason."
[cheering]
Ha! Ha! Ha! The Dark Lord!
There's no disadvantage
to playing against Yannis,
because you get to kill him
a lot of times. It's really...
That's super fun. Bang!
Bang! Bang! Down you go!
[in French]
The pressure comes from always
fighting for survival
and in convincing management
that the money invested here
is well-spent because
of the project's potential,
rather than
on an existing brand.
[in English] How many times do I
need to remind you of this rule:
In show business, you need to be
good when it counts.
Okay! That is true.
And I'll tell you when that is.
Oh, when that is! Okay, good.
That's when I win!
That's when you win.
That's when it counts.
YANNIS: [in French]
I do combative sports.
Sometimes I take hits,
sometimes I hit back.
I know that fear, concern,
thrill, intensity comes with it.
You get that intensity
playing Hero.
Perfect, perfect!
Bring me the Dark Lord! Shit!
[in French]
Before, management would cancel
one out of every three meetings.
"Oh, there's another emergency."
We have a project
in early development.
There's always a daily emergency
that takes precedence.
Now management is on my floor
the day before
to practice
because they're all very proud
and they don't want
to get beaten
on the day of the tournament.
So I have a buy-in
from the team,
but I also have a buy-in
from management.
[chattering]
[in English] Sonic and Moonwreck, the
two - team captains, dueling here.
Sonic doing a great job
with the guard breaks,
placing those attacks
really, really well.
Moonwreck gets
a strong attack in.
This is still anyone's game.
Moonwreck takes him down.
I can't take this shit.
It's too much.
Now the knights are back
in sudden death.
They're down two guys!
[cheering]
That's a good decision. I can't
blame them for doing that.
You don't want to be caught
two-on-one in this game.
It's a great way to get a sword
in your back and to be dead.
JASON: I got an
education about bullies,
you know, for the first 20 years
of my life.
In school and being young,
I was constantly being attacked.
I was never safe. Never safe.
Because I wouldn't fight back.
All you needed to do is say
one thing to me, man,
and I would break down crying,
I'd get mad,
I'd freak out, I would give
you these huge reactions.
I get hurt really, really easy.
And that's on me.
That's not the world
constantly hurting me, right?
That's...
I'm really, really sensitive.
So...
I'm going to get hurt.
It's just going to happen.
There's no avoiding it.
If you're someone who is afraid
that something bad's
going to happen,
then understanding the
consequences of violent action
can help you with that feeling.
I think that anyone
who is interested
in how the world works
will also be interested
in violence,
because violence is the natural
consequence of conflict.
And I can be fascinated by that
and not need to express it
at all.
I have no need...
I'm not a violent person.
I am very peaceful, in fact.
[discordant
electronic music plays]
MAN: "...never had to fight,
never had to go to war,
rise against men.
The man grabs the sword,
and he scans all the details.
We cut to a first-person view
of the knight running
towards a group
of imposing Vikings.
This is the moment that we
realize how scary it can be
to be on a battlefield facing
such a strong enemy."
Are you okay?
JASON: The story,
I've always wondered
what it would be like.
I never had to, and I always
wondered if I could. That's...
You, uh...
You put your finger
on something.
[in French]
We've still got to go pitch it.
And one of the main issues
for us is,
"What are we presenting?"
[in English] "Close up on the sword.
Script. Plunge into the ground.
The hand of
a man grabs it firmly
and pulls it out. Behind him,
other soldiers
are following his steps."
STPHANE: [in French] I think we'll
have to announce - the game this year.
The real tragedy now
would be if another big project
announced a similar game.
JASON: This combat system,
this lock-on-fight dual stance.
We didn't invent this,
we discovered this, right?
The worst thing
that could happen would be
that if somebody else has been
working on it, too.
[intense electronic music plays]
We have this big meeting where,
like, me and Steph and Luc,
all the sort of core leads
of the team,
we all go to Paris to meet at HQ
with Yves Guillemot and
with the editorial group there.
So we get together,
we show what we're doing,
and then we talk about
what we'd like to do.
What our plans are.
They said, "Actually,
you know what, you guys?
We think you should go for it,
for the full box game.
The big one."
The answer is, "Yes, good.
Your current plan
is good, right?
And we'll give you this much
more. Here, take this money."
And inside I'm like,
"Yes. Oh, my God. Just like..."
All right!
Congratulation Hero team
on your fucking FPP.
[cheering]
Really well done!
It's going to get hot and heavy.
For the next year or so,
the people that you are partying
with right now
and that you're talking with
right now,
you're going to see
a lot of these faces.
And remember,
we're in this together,
we're going to do
a great fucking job.
The game is amazing.
You guys are amazing,
and I'm proud to work with
you all. Thank you very much.
[cheering]
[grunting]
[swords clanging]
[epic music plays]
[battle cry]
We have a system,
a technology that we call...
No. We don't name it.
We don't talk about that. Okay.
I think our biggest challenge
is to say, "Hey, guys!
We are here. We exist."
You saw it
with the trailer, right?
You see it when you play
with the action.
MAN: Knight, Viking,
Samurai, what's the deal?
It's about you.
It's about what do you value?
What kind of warrior
is inside of you?
MAN 2: One of the
biggest announcements
at today's the Ubisoft
press conference
is one of the big new games
that was revealed this year.
WOMAN: There is melee combat,
but this is a different style
of melee, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
We call it the Art of Battle.
Instead of it happening here
in your head,
you're not thinking about it
intellectually.
It happens down here,
in the lizard brain.
There was a big surprise
delivered by this man.
Surprise!
Surprise!
When people start playing,
they immediately start...
[grunting] Ooh!
Yeah.
It's a new system, so give
yourself a couple of minutes.
But once you get it,
that's where the fun will peak.
It's you and me,
we're going to decide this.
Two great warriors slashing
in the battlefield.
For a decade, I was like, "We should make
this game, - we should make this game."
And the answer was,
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, we don't make
that kind of game. No, no."
STPHANE: Today we came here
with a world dominion mode.
We have split-screen,
different multiplayer modes.
[man speaking German]
Jason VandenBerghe.
Why is it called For Honor?
JASON: The title is kind
of a question, right?
What do you think honor means?
And what would you fight for?
The Knights, it's usually
about being protectors, right?
Defending the weak, right,
the nobility of that.
But people who pick Vikings,
it's all about,
like, expression and freedom
and passion and raarr!
And then Samurai,
it's always about mastery
and, you know, discipline
and learning to focus
and working toward something
that's greater than yourself.
Drop by my desk,
I'll have it ready for you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
JASON: We've been
going from a team
that has been really led
by one person creatively.
I've been this, you know,
like, visionary auteur pushing
and helping every piece
of the game all the way through.
To a team where that now
has been spread out.
I've given that responsibility
to ten different people,
to all the different directors,
and we're making
this organization that knows
how to make this game, right?
So if I get hit by a bus, right,
they can make the game.
That's one thing we need to fix,
though, is they don't move...
STPHANE: [in French] With the size of our
budget, - I can't just say to my bosses,
"We're doing something new.
We're going to learn
how to do it."
No. We have to compete
with the best in the world.
In order to compete
with the best,
you have to attract
the best talent.
We now have five studios
working with us.
We have people in China,
in India,
Bucharest, Germany, Quebec,
Toronto.
We have dispersed
our production.
It's become a big machine.
Five hundred people
will soon be involved
in the For Honor project.
LUC: [in French]
It's all good.
There is a lack of confidence.
Don't worry about it.
I told them, [in English]
"Calm the fuck down."
JASON: Whoever it is that
is making these decisions.
Because so far...
I don't even know who is making
these decisions.
Yeah.
STPHANE: [in French]
Do you know why Jason is upset?
MAN: [in French] He asked
for certain things to be done,
and they were changed.
He's leaving for three days
on a long weekend,
so he's panicking.
JASON: The last six months
has been really intense
because we're a big team now,
and I no longer have the time
to explain to the people
whose feelings I've hurt
what I meant.
I'll be like, "Blah."
And I'll say something,
and they'll go... [gasps]
And I can see it on their face.
I can see that I've hurt them.
And inside I go,
"Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no."
When we were a smaller project,
I could be like,
"Look, I'm really sorry,
let's talk about that,"
and take 15 minutes, 20 minutes,
and talk it out,
and so it would be fine.
But now, we got to go.
If your camera picks up speed
a little bit
and just get
the fuck over there,
we won't feel the lack
of the story quite as much.
I am very particular, right?
I want things to be like this,
or like this, or like this...
And when I get into conflict
with people,
something about the way that
I act and the way that I talk
communicates to them
that they're in danger.
And I scare people.
It feels to me like,
again, we need to make each beat
really crisp.
Imagine you're working with
a family of 208 people, right?
And then imagine
that you figure out
that you're the crazy uncle
who sometimes hurts
everyone's feelings.
I don't know. There was a weird
little thing with the grab,
but you can clean it up.
And sometimes breaks
their heart.
Action! Come on in! Argh!
[grunting]
JASON: I want to stay
and make this game...
forever.
I don't want to hurt people.
Yet, I have to tell people
things they don't want to hear,
and I have to be hard on
people sometimes
in ways that I'm not good at.
I'm clumsy, right?
And I'm required to do that
for my job.
Your hands are shaking
because you think me a monster.
You wonder what you could do.
Strike me down somehow.
Turn my legion against me.
That passion, Warden,
I live it every day.
Every breath. In that way,
we are the same.
What makes us different
is that you have not yet learned
what real monsters are made of.
Monsters, Warden,
are made of innocence.
WOMAN: War.
The natural state
of our species.
This food.
Why are we not burning it all?
WOMAN: What do you
imagine the clans
would do if we burned it all?
They'd starve, die.
They would unite.
But leave them scraps,
just enough for two,
maybe three clans,
they will fight each other
over what remains.
The wolves among them
will rise.
We're not here to kill them.
We are here to teach them
who they are.
Apollyon is the most dangerous
warrior in our game world.
She believes deeply
that wolves are allowed to feed.
I am Apollyon.
[dramatic music plays]
I bring war.
[grunting]
JASON: In For Honor,
it's a very dark setting.
It's a place where conflict
is constant, right?
The story is about being
a warrior,
being someone who will stay
and fight, right?
At the center of that conflict.
And knowing that what you're
doing may or may not be right,
may or may not be
perfectly good or evil, right?
But still doing the best
that you can do in that moment
and using every part
of your ability
in the hope that it makes
the world a better place.
I've made a lot of games, right?
Almost every other project
I've been on,
I was there to save the project.
I was there to help the project
finish. It wasn't mine.
I was there to close it.
I was there to...
to help.
But if the game was good or bad,
I always had an excuse.
If people don't like this game,
I won't have that.
I won't be able to tell myself,
"Oh, I didn't have time,"
or, "I didn't have the...
You know,
I didn't have the support,
or I didn't have... "Phew.
It'll just be, "No, we failed."
[discordant
electronic music plays]
Yeah.
I'm Aisha Tyler,
and I'm standing
in the historic Orpheum Theatre
in vaguely beautiful,
yet vaguely urine-scented
downtown Los Angeles.
It's E3 Conference time.
JASON: We are rehearsing.
We are rehearsing.
We are going to walk through
our stage performance.
Apollyon
and her Black Stone legions
crave a world
where trust is impossible.
They're going to run
the trailer,
and then I'm going to walk out,
and then we're going to have
the little story time.
And we're going to watch
the demo.
And then I come back off stage.
And I fall apart.
[explosions]
[sound in slow motion]
[grunting]
MAN'S VOICE: [in trailer]
That raider showed us
what Viking fury could do.
[in French]
The demo is lagging.
We have to change something
on the PC, and we'll restart.
LUC: [in English] No, because it's
lagging. We need to stop that.
It's lagging.
It's a waste of time right now.
It worked for a century...
MAN: We're going to roll
the backup video. Okay.
[in French] Play the backup
video to see if it works.
[in English] "And it
had begun..." Fade, logo!
Argh! Logo!
We know the plan,
they just fucked it up.
"And it had begun..." Fade
to black, punch the logo in.
With the sound,
which they fucked it up again.
It's not that!
The timing, like, the video
plays, the logo comes up...
LUC: Okay, then what's
the solution you propose?
I don't know. Because...
If you see a problem,
tell me what solution you see.
Then we can see what we can do
with the assets we have at hand.
That's the thing.
It's not like I can modify
the video. I cannot modify it.
I'm aware of that, dude.
It's not my first fucking rodeo.
Me neither,
it's not my first rodeo.
So if you have a solution,
bring it forward.
Right now, the date, which has
been the number-one question
that people have been asking us,
is just kind of a whoosh!
It's a ghost in the middle
of a transition
that's not even happening,
right? So...
STPHANE: I don't think we can
judge. I had the same comments.
But it's supposed to be there,
the mix, and after that, bang!
I think I can judge.
I think I can.
But that's the problem.
That's what we're arguing.
I don't see the need to argue.
I'm just telling you guys,
you don't think you can judge,
I think I can.
All right.
[sighing]
It's really hard
to stay focused, right?
It's really hard to stay
on top of all of that,
and have everything go well,
and maintain my emotional
equilibrium, you know?
Today, as Americans,
we grieve the brutal murder,
a horrific massacre of dozens
of innocent people.
We pray for their families,
who are grasping for answers
with broken hearts.
We stand with the people
of Orlando,
who have endured a terrible
attack on their city.
We know enough to say that
this was an act of terror
and an act of hate.
JASON: There is a lot of hate
in this world. It...
It's senseless.
There's probably people
out there
that would find this
sort of ironic, but...
This... I'm making a game
about warfare, you know?
Games put you at the center,
and sometimes that means
creating villains,
and sometimes that means putting our
characters - in difficult places,
And sometimes it means asking
you to do things that seem
difficult or grotesque
or, you know, frightening,
or all that stuff.
But that's life,
that's human life.
If I have anything to say
that can help,
the best way for me to do
that is through entertainment.
My message will come through.
Even if it's wrapped
in swords and sorcery, right?
I think that art is...
a way to strike back
against anger
and oppression and violence.
And it's all I've got.
[suspenseful music plays]
LUC: [in French]
So far we've rehearsed Saturday
morning, Sunday morning,
Sunday night.
I can't wait for it to be over
because,
on top of the jetlag, my nights
are getting worse and worse.
Last night I woke up
five to eight times,
and I don't normally get up
at night.
I sleep with this thing
on my face.
To get up and go pee,
I've got to take it off
and turn off the machine.
Every year the media will cover
the most anticipated games.
This week we had GameSpot,
one of the biggest sites,
put up a list of E3 2016's
most anticipated games.
When you look at it, For Honor
is in second place,
alongside Battlefield, Zelda,
other monsters of the industry.
[suspenseful music plays]
[chattering]
Showtime, people!
[applause]
["Don't Stop Me Now" playing]
[in French]
They didn't invite me.
[in English]
It's going to be awesome.
[Jason sighs]
[atmospheric music plays]
[birds chirping]
APOLLYON: There were no signs.
It came without warning.
[menacing music plays]
[rumbling]
[intense music plays]
[screaming]
[swords clanging]
[cheers and applause]
Ah!
[cheers and applause]
Oh, yes.
Desperation drives us to war.
It is trust that can end it.
Apollyon and her Black Stone
legions crave a world
where trust is impossible.
[cheers and applause]
I'd like you to meet our game
director on For Honor,
Roman Campos-Oriola.
Come on out, Roman.
[cheers and applause]
My brother. Good luck.
How did I do?
Great.
[swords clanging and grunting]
Bye-bye.
And you're dead.
Nailed it.
Okay. Nice fight.
[intense music plays]
[grunting]
[clapping]
[speaking along with narration]
..they would call it.
And it had begun.
[audience applauding]
And they fucked up the logo!
They fucked up the logo for
the seventh consecutive times.
Congratulations.
[applause]
Give it up for Roman!
Jason VandenBerghe.
If you are looking for something
to give to that very special
someone in your life,
For Honor will be available
on Valentine's Day.
[laughs]
What could be more romantic
than dinner, drinks,
and an all-night bender
of epic warfare?
[cheers and applause]
We're talking to
the whole Internet right now.
Well, like ten fans.
[upbeat electronic music plays]
[conversations indistinct]
[music continuing]
This is
the decompression chamber.
I'm only at ease
when I'm alone or with my wife.
People are always surprised,
but I'm an introvert.
I'm never comfortable
when there's...
When I'm at the office
or the...
What's really weird about that,
though, is that I can't...
I need the social stimulation,
I need the pressure to create.
So my life has been
about finding a balance
between jumping into these
highly stressful situations,
and then getting away from them,
and then depressurizing,
and then going back in,
back and forth.
[discordant
electronic music plays]
Team meeting.
Team meeting.
We have to talk about E3.
It was
a very, very, very good event.
We exceeded
every business objective
we had walking in there.
Now we have many discussions
with potential partners,
from clothing, action figures,
animation series,
amusement parks.
[cheers and applause]
We surprised people at E3.
That means that we'll do
a bigger world tour.
There is going
to have presentation
that was not planned.
You cannot miss that,
even if it's painful.
MAN: I'm now in front
of the For Honor booth
in the middle of the action
at GamesCon.
So here we have 64 pods,
so you can try the campaign,
you can try the multiplayer
with your friends.
I was really looking forward
to this game,
this style of combat,
you feel this sense of realism.
The control system was a bit
different than I'm used to.
At the beginning,
I was having a little bit
of trouble to get into it.
NARRATOR: You guard incoming attacks
to the right, left, or top,
And attempt to retaliate
where there's an opening.
It sounds simple, right?
Well, it isn't.
I'd like to see
maybe sneak-attack kills,
like, sneak kills from behind.
That would be, like, useful.
STPHANE: [in French] I made Paquito
work - till midnight last night.
I'll look at it now.
A triple A experience in 2016
is no longer simply a question
of having a good game because
if you have a great game,
but can't connect
with your friends online,
it ends up being a shitty game.
Because we're having trouble
staffing the online portion,
I have to cut features
that have been developed.
To save two weeks
of online programming,
I have no choice but to cut them
from my game.
Basically, we're asking people
to run 100 meters,
when really they're doing
a marathon.
I've had seven resignations
in the last few weeks.
I want Simon to put pressure on
Bndicte for them to hire more.
We need to be aggressive,
because we're really in trouble.
You remember,
we had to go up to 600 people
in order to maintain the
three branches of the project,
bring three core teams together.
I don't have the means today
to staff like that.
But I don't take on a project
if I don't have a staffing plan.
We'll collapse
like a house of cards.
LUC: The brand week meeting...
I'll ask for a video conference.
We'll look at the date.
LUC: At one point,
we need to make sacrifices.
The business team
should lead brand week.
It's their presentation.
STPHANE: You're still trying
to delegate work.
There's always at least
one person from the team.
LUC: So I have a choice. We don't
participate - in consumer events.
I'm not the one you should be
telling that to.
Tell your bosses.
You are my boss.
Yes, but the people in Paris
are your clients.
Your clients
are your real bosses.
It's a meeting for them.
Not that one.
We'll go for ten minutes.
JASON: I am hiding.
I have found this wonderful
booth of solitude
that's far enough away
from the beaten path
that no one can find me.
So I can get my work done.
I've given up control of over
90% of this game by this point.
So Roman is directing
the entire multiplayer effort
and almost all of the game play.
Roman and Gaelec and Jeff
and those other guys,
and I am not involved
right now on that,
because I've turned my attention
on narratives,
cinematics, writing.
I was writing at 7:00 a.m.
this morning,
and I'll be writing
until 10:00 p.m. tonight.
And I'll just keep rolling
like that through the weekend.
WOMAN: Hello!
That's lunch.
It's not real food.
Remember when we lived in France
and real food was
part of the culture?
Yes.
It's nice for you to come home
for lunch during the week.
[laughing]
I like it when you do that.
How's it at the office?
What were you doing
this morning?
Kill me.
WOMAN: Jason, he's 100
percent in the game,
and I'm like a lifeline
back out.
Because I'm always keeping us
in the room together.
It's going to be fine,
it's going to be fine.
It's going to be fine.
JASON: I'm really not running
the show in my head.
I just kind of poke at things.
And then suddenly I go,
"Poke." Oh!
When I find it, it's not,
"Oh, that's it," in my mind.
I go, "Poke."
I can feel it in my heart.
I feel it in my body, right?
My body goes,
"Yes, that's what we're doing."
It's how I work as a director.
I have
this deep kind of... rrr!
This emotional part.
This sort of...
whatever this is,
a monster that...
that is just going to do
what it's going to do.
It keeps me up at night.
[soft electronic music plays]
Nice to see you, buddy.
My brother!
Good to see you.
We are doing a three-hour
stream from PAX for For Honor.
We're doing a...
For Honor?
For Honor, yeah.
What's that?
Oh, the game!
Yeah, thanks!
God! Sorry.
Yeah. I love you.
Like a brother. Like a brother.
Similar to a brother.
[laughing]
What's the weather like
in Montreal?
Does the air always smell
like baguettes?
[Jason laughs]
Yeah! Yes.
That's how I picture it
in my mind.
Constantly, constantly.
MAN: It's just weird to have
breakfast here in the morning,
instead of at like two o'clock
in the morning.
[Jason laughs]
Do you know what you want?
Yes.
"Southwestern Exposure,"
six eggs.
MAN: The "Full House," please.
And six eggs, right?
Six, yeah.
I am not enough of a man
for the 12.
[Jason laughs]
BEN: Is there a sword
in that cane yet?
JASON: You know what?
I was in France,
and this French cop car goes...
I'm walking, and it's...
[imitating screeching tires]
Four cops get out,
and they're like,
"Excusez-moi, monsieur,
I need to see your cane."
"Okay." And I'm not making
this up, he goes...
He fiddled with it?
He goes...
Fiddle, fiddle.
"Do you have a sword in here?"
[Ben laughs]
And I go, "No."
He goes, "Okay.
Have a nice day."
Gets in his car, drives off.
What is it about
your whole shtick
that could make him think
you might be carrying a sword?
[Jason laughs]
Because you look like you're
just on your way to your job
at the insurance company, right?
To work on actuarial tables.
That was...
I was being profiled.
You're profiled.
I'm being profiled, man.
You're profiled.
Yeah, I want more.
BEN: This will be fun because if
he has one more cup of coffee,
He turns into a maniac.
The Vikings.
You know,
those guys starved all winter
and lived off of
other people's food all summer.
They didn't actually exist.
The biggest assholes ever.
They didn't exist.
Yes, they did.
Have you read 1066?
That guy didn't.
That guy didn't.
That guy didn't.
The Danish literally came down
and invaded England.
I'm with you. The Danes exist.
The Danes existed.
Those guys, fictional.
That's an interesting point.
Yes.
Finally. 45 years,
and you finally
make an interesting point.
[Jason laughs]
I'm just going to savor
this moment.
I'm just going to enjoy it.
So good.
[soft electronic music plays]
JASON: I think I was 14,
my dad got involved in
a community play.
And it was the first time
I had been in a theater
when the show was not on.
And I was blown away.
It was like seeing
behind The Matrix.
It was this feeling
of incredible revelation.
It was like, "Oh, my God!
This is the theater
before the show begins."
It's like watching creation.
It's like watching the universe
be created.
It's... It's incredible.
Aspiring Knights, Samurai, and
Vikings, here in the PAX arena
and in Twitch video players
online around the world,
welcome to the For Honor
PAX West gauntlet.
JASON: In games, we love to hear
about the process
of making games,
we love to watch
the game unfold,
we love to experience it
before it's completed.
HOST: Jason VandenBerghe!
[cheers and applause]
JASON: I can't imagine more
meaningful work for me.
I work in the temple of Thespis,
you know?
I devoted my life
to entertaining people
and to trying to find new ways
to reach them
and to fill their hearts
with new ideas
through entertainment, right?
[all roaring]
[jet engines]
This is how I'll spend
the rest of my life.
I may not make video games
my whole life,
but I'm going to be
entertaining people.
And I'll do that
until the day I die.
[upbeat electronic music plays]
[woman speaking Russian]
So far, everything we've been
doing on For Honor
has a tremendous impact
in Russia.
The trailers have
a lot of views.
The positive feedback
we're getting.
A lot of registrations on our
website are coming from Russia.
So it's like, "Okay.
Let's do something for Russia."
[speaking Russian]
Our Creative Director,
he first thought about For Honor
after having
a German long-sword class.
This is what we want
the people to experience
when playing For Honor is,
we want you to be
on the battlefield
experiencing the emotion,
the danger of being surrounded
by all those epic warriors.
[in French]
It's past 10:00 p.m.,
and I still have to work.
As for sleep, it's a good thing
I have my machine.
I'm like Darth Vader.
Apnea means you're never
in a deep sleep.
You wake up constantly.
You choke and stop breathing.
Health problems come
with not breathing properly.
When you don't sleep well,
you don't get enough oxygen,
and it's bad for your heart.
I was told that I was
three to six months away
from a heart attack.
Some people stop eating
when they're stressed.
When I get stressed, I eat.
GIRL: Hello!
Hey, Lili, how are you?
You know, the kids understand
that Daddy works,
but Monday morning,
when I drove my kids to school,
the little one was crying.
She didn't want me to go.
It breaks my heart.
Even the older one,
once the little one was gone,
she hugged me and said,
"Daddy, I don't want you
to leave."
So, it's not easy.
[in French]
There are consequences
to not achieving
this summer's staffing plan.
You're telling me this
during our biggest crunch time.
The team is tired and fighting
for its survival.
As of today, the release date
has not been secured.
You can't just say,
"Okay, Cardin,
open the floodgates."
In May, I was 500 people short
to implement the brand plan.
Today I'm not only missing
those people,
I didn't even have time
to find them last May.
You drop this in my lap in
October while all my directors
are fighting like dogs
to deliver the game on time.
My job is to secure
the shipping date
because it's up in the air
right now,
and delaying the launch would
have major consequences
on the company.
WOMAN: This is IGN News, where
split-screen functionality
has been officially cut
from Ubisoft's upcoming
medieval brawler For Honor.
MAN: And now, it has
been confirmed by Ubisoft
that the feature has been
dropped from the game entirely.
MAN 2: Anything that was
co-op or split-screen is gone.
Ouch!
MAN: The team had
spoken many times
about the importance
of split-screen
as a feature and how it applies
to their vision.
WOMAN: In a 2015 interview
with GameSpot,
creative director
Jason VandenBerghe said that,
"The feature was absolutely
key for us."
Split-screen, super required,
because this is a game
about fighting with weapons.
MAN: During an interview with
IGN, - producer Stphane Cardin
Said the change was made
very recently.
We decided this week to cut
the split-screen.
It was a feature that we loved,
but for us it was critical
to make the decision now,
so we can polish all
the features at a triple A level
and make sure that we have
the most amazing experience.
[man 3 speaking German]
MAN 4: Maybe somewhere down
the road Ubisoft realized...
MAN: For me, For Honor is one
of my most anticipated games
of next year.
STPHANE: [in French] I want to
take advantage - of this meeting
Because people are tired
and unhappy.
I want to tell them
we are aware of the situation,
and I want to work with you
today. I'm making it a point
to improve our methods
for planning the post-launch.
We have to break the perception
that only I can do it.
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
[In English]
I know with the live period,
we suffered a lot.
And, to me, the thing I'm
asking you is to open your mind
and work closely with us
to make it happen.
But I also need your help
for organization.
Please stop to be...
stop to be negative,
saying nothing will change.
We will again make things
change internally.
And I will work my ass very hard
to make sure we have
a healthy environment
and a healthy calendar
for everyone.
[applause]
WOMAN: Yes, we are closing now.
December sixth
we send our bill to QC
to get a Gold validation
from them.
If we don't get a green light,
we are missing the date.
STPHANE: [in French]
Failing is always a possibility.
Now we're getting close
to what I call "the red zone."
Early on in the project,
you can always say, "Oh,
we'll reflect on it later."
Later doesn't exist anymore.
JASON: I'm going through
this weird, weird process
of letting go,
and so I'm sort of separating
from the game,
and there's a depression that
comes after you stop, right,
when you create something.
At least for me.
I get really like, ugh, sad.
No game wants to be finished.
You have to force it.
My brothers!
How is it going?
How you doing, sir?
JASON: Oh, dear!
Look at what you...
This is lovely.
These are lovely.
MAN: It's interesting that
you have time for this today.
Yes.
It's like, "Wow.
What's going on?
Did something happen?"
Listen.
It's the stress relief.
Did you fire yourself?
I did!
No, I'm done, dude.
I'm done. I'm done.
I'm done.
No.
Yes, I am done.
No.
My role on the project
is over. Yes.
So you wander the halls
forlornly, looking for...
Yes, yes, yes.
No, but you're still there.
Yeah, I have an office,
I'm sitting with the sound team,
but I have no tasks.
Like, I'm done.
They no longer care
about my opinion.
[mysterious music plays]
JASON: These barbarians,
they seem like
they're good people, huh?
They embrace each other
like they were all kin.
But that is all a lie.
When night falls, they stab
each other with their knives.
[music continuing]
Writing Apollyon
was maybe the closest
to putting a lot of my own views
into a character.
[battle cry]
Apollyon believes that the only
way that you can know yourself
is through
life-and-death survival.
You know,
experience is being challenged
and fighting for your life.
She believes that that's
the only way to self-knowledge.
APOLLYON: Your emperor is dead.
Will you take his place?
SAMURAI: After I kill
the rest of them,
I'm coming to kill you.
[Apollyon laughs]
A wolf.
Leave the palace to Seijuro.
The others can fight
for the scraps.
JASON: Truth is,
when you fight for something
that you believe in,
win or lose,
you become immortal.
You're remembered.
Warriors are remembered because
of the battles that they fight.
And we all want immortality.
We all want to be remembered.
[soft electronic music plays]
[in French]
On a four-to-five-year project,
the project is your backdrop,
but it becomes your life,
your whole way of life.
You can be the best manager
in the world.
You can have the best methods,
try to take on
everyone's problems,
try to manage project stuff,
manage expectations,
deliver everything you had
to deliver.
But at a certain point,
you lose your bearings.
Everyone has expectations.
You have expectations
in your personal life,
expectations at work.
You have people on your team
who believe in
what you sold them,
and being able to go
through all of that...
In four and a half years,
I gave it everything I had.
Ambition is good,
but do you have all the tools
to manage this adrenaline,
this pressure?
[fire crackling]
[in English]
I really, really miss you all.
Um, I just
want to clarify something,
because I just disappeared
before Christmas.
My command center
just shut down.
Just shut down.
I woke up, and I was not able
to just think.
And I went and said,
"Go and get help."
So, I just want to share
that with you,
just telling you that,
you know, it's part of life.
I'm good to give advice.
I'm really bad to follow
my own advice.
I don't recommend you
to pass through
the hell I passed through.
I really love you,
and I'm really, really happy
to be back with you.
[in French]
Like a big bag of rocks.
I just did it like that.
It fell.
The first thing
they did was break the ego.
They slammed it
with a sledgehammer.
Sometimes you're like, "I'm
going to think about myself."
You spend, what,
15-20 minutes on it?
I spent 14 hours a day, 21 days
closed off from everything.
[in English]
Mr. VandenBerghe!
How are you, sir?
A lot better. A lot better.
I went far. I went far.
But I'm back.
Good. It was a good break.
Yeah.
So, I need to talk to you,
if you've got time.
STPHANE: Yeah. I will
just look at the schedule.
Maybe this afternoon.
I just need a half an hour.
JASON: I'm done with the project
and kind of winding down,
And what am I going to do next?
I have these ideas
for the sequel.
Everyone's waiting
for the game to come out,
so that we can see
if it was a success or not.
And until that happens,
it's going to be really hard
for anybody to listen to me
about what I think
we should do next, right?
[chattering]
[in French] - How are you, buddy?
Very good.
I'm happy to see you again.
Me, too. I'm happy to be here.
That's what matters.
YANNIS: [in English] For Honor
is a very special project.
It started from a sparkle
that you guys saw
in a totally blue ocean.
And you're helping the studio
and the whole company
to shine and to thrive.
Thank you very much.
It's an honor.
[cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
STPHANE: Five years already.
We knew we were touching
something special,
and you guys delivered
on every step.
I want to thank you very much.
I love you all.
Thank you
and enjoy the champagne.
Yeah!
[cheering]
Open the gate!
Congratulations!
Good job.
JASON: Yannis got up and talked,
and Steph got up and talked,
And I didn't talk.
I wasn't invited.
[chattering]
So, cheers!
You'll forgive me if
I don't dance on my own grave.
There's no grave.
Yeah. Okay. Sure.
I'm going to go talk to Steph.
You're a very responsible guy.
You can decide how you react.
Sure.
JASON: I am a hard
man to understand,
so people are left to interpret
what I want and what I do
through the lens of whatever
they think I am.
Congratulations, Steph!
Congratulations, my friend!
JASON: I love peace,
but I'm not comfortable in it.
I fight,
and I live to create peace,
but, once it's there,
I don't know what to do.
When Steph and I sat down,
it was clear that we're...
we're not going
to continue, right?
The last two years,
he had to make a bunch
of really unpleasant decisions.
Did those decisions and
my decisions end up in a place
where we're going to separate?
Yeah. We're going to separate.
[dramatic]
electronic music plays]
There's a word that we have...
That we don't talk much about
anymore,
which I've had to learn about
on this project.
Um, and that is "nobility."
Nobility means
that you do the thing
that you don't want to do
even though
it hurts you beyond measure,
because you know that it's
what the people need you to do.
And you suck it up,
and you don't complain.
And you just do it.
STPHANE: [in French]
It started off
with a production team
that was really looking
for a project.
We came across
a Creative Director, Jason.
We had the skeleton
and the muscles,
but we didn't have the soul.
We were missing the heart.
And Jason's dream, his passion,
his energy,
it fit with the team.
LUC: Stphane?
STPHANE: What hurts
me the most today
is that we actually do
many things with people
that we appreciate and
that we love on a daily basis,
but out of pride, ego,
and competitiveness,
people don't acknowledge it.
Can we just respect
and love each other
from the outset?
I mean, we're together.
I give hugs!
Congratulations!
You all get hugs.
Thank you very much.
Aww!
STPHANE: We're going
to be left with relationships.
That's what we will remember.
STPHANE: [in English]
Jason, kneel!
[tense music plays]
Congratulations,
congratulations, enjoy it.
STPHANE: [in French]
It's often said
that delivering a project
like this is a bit like giving
birth. Well, that involves pain.
It wasn't always rosy.
There were bumps in the road,
and it affected some people.
CONAN O'BRIEN:
I'm chasing Tom Brady,
who is not engaging me.
STPHANE: It's part of the game.
Wait! No, no!
Get his ass.
JASON: The parts
of my personality
that I am currently being told
are the reason that I need to go
are the same parts
of my personality that made me
the best choice and the reason
that they gave me that team.
I'm not a very good soldier,
so I have to live
with the consequences.
JASON: [to Yannis] It's a really
dark place - that I'm in right now.
My baby is being taken away
from me.
Like all babies.
Yeah. Well, it's not the way
it's usually done.
So I'm not going to be
invited back.
And the reasons
for that are not okay with me.
I'm happy to let it go out
in the world.
I'll find something else
to do, right?
But...
it's one of the worst things
that could happen in the middle
of one of the best things
that's possible.
So, I'm not in a good space.
I'm really not.
The actual answer, though, to why
does it keep - happening to me?
I actually had to think about
this. I know the answer now.
Awesome.
I will tell you a story.
I will tell you a story.
Hey! Hey!
Hey!
JASON: I can tell you
the story of a warlord
who found a people who were
in trouble, had been defeated.
And this warlord came in and
inspired them and organized them
and trained them
and gave them weapons,
and then formed an army
and reclaimed the land.
[rap music plays in venue]
And now peace begins.
And the farmers
go back to their fields,
and the traders and the
merchants arrive in the city,
and now everything
is returning to normal.
And so a day comes
when the council,
the priests, and the merchants
all come to the warlord and say,
"You need to go."
It's the curse of the warlord.
Right?
The game is amazing.
It's... beautiful.
It's an incredible achievement.
And I will never work
on it again.
Imagine that you have a child,
and imagine that that child
grows and goes to college.
And imagine that
when they leave for college,
they sit down with you, and they
have a private conversation,
and they tell you that they
never want to see you again.
"I'm sorry, Dad,
but you're just too intense.
I'm going to go
and do my own life,
but please
don't contact me again."
[sigh]
I'm trying to just be okay
with it.
I'm trying to just
not freak out.
Because, uh...
I don't have another choice
that I can make.
I'm going to go to do
the live stream today.
And there's nobody there
who under... who...
Who's aware of it.
Here we are.
JASON: So everyone else is here
celebrating For Honor and
is ready to launch the game.
Hey!
This is a little over-the-top
with the crown and the sword.
This is going too far.
It's too far for you?
Well, it's not too far for me.
This is right up my alley.
JASON: It's like being an actor.
I have to find in myself
the part of me
that is genuinely excited
about that moment, right?
It's not pretending.
I don't need to pretend.
Hi!
WOMAN: Do you want to keep
this little
5 o'clock shadowy stuff going?
You don't want to trim it down?
It's part of the look.
That's why I'm asking.
JASON: This is just what I am.
Melodramatic.
It's just the deal.
Love it.
WOMAN: In the meantime,
let's head back to Chris
who's sitting down with Jason.
Jason,
welcome to the large couch.
JASON: This is my religion.
It's the theater of the mind.
Entertainment, games, movies,
books, all of this stuff.
It's the theater of the mind.
[electronic music plays]
[indistinct conversations]
I'm coming for you!
Shit!
JASON: It's the lens
through which we
understand how the world works
without having to literally go
to war ourselves, right?
[cheering and laughing]
It's a way for people
to be warned
and to learn about
what the world contains
to better prepare themselves
for what's happening
in their real life.
[chattering]
We reject philosophy
as a study in our culture
these days, right?
Philosophy has been
sort of pushed to the side.
But we revere
our entertainment forms, right?
Well, it's the same.
Entertainment is
philosophy in motion.
Huzzah!
[cheers and applause]
MAN: Bye-bye.
Jason VandenBerghe.
LUC: Raining, day's ending,
we're walking in the distance.
[singing] My friend
The end is near
And so we face
The final curtain
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again...
JASON: The time is coming
to lift the curtain,
turn on the lights,
and let the creation speak
for itself, right?
Let it stand there
and be judged.
And I won't be there.
I'll be in the audience.
[upbeat electronic music plays]
STPHANE: [in French] We wanted
to release the perfect game
for Valentine's Day,
a game for love.
We wanted something
more immersive,
something less mental
and much more from the heart.
[in French] We really wanted for
players to be able to experience
what you experience
in Braveheart or in 300.
STPHANE: This year,
the 14th of February
is not time for making love,
it'll be time for making war.
So, get ready for the big
release of For Honor.
[electronic music continuing]
LUC: Did he buy For Honor?
Thank you.
Hi! My name is Luc,
I work with the development
team. Show me the game,
so we can see it
in the photo.
[shutter clicks]
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
The game is released!
Ahh!
We're at over 700,000
right now.
We're not giving any numbers.
Did you play the Conan video
this morning?
Yes.
Cool.
Luc and Stphane, thank you
very much for having me.
Do you already have preliminary
numbers as far as downloads?
We've got some, but we can't
give them away. It's going well.
It's going very well.
We're happy.
Let's just say today
there was an enthusiasm...
Where'd you get that?
I laid down
in a pile of game cases.
That's a good one.
Yeah, you like it?
Yeah. Put it on Facebook.
Fuck, it's blowing up
like crazy.
Do you have any copies
of For Honor left?
WOMAN: Yeah.
Did you sell some today?
Yeah, quite a lot.
STPHANE: What's that?
It says "collector's edition"
on the box.
MAN: There's not
enough for everyone.
Oh, no.
It's cool!
[laughing]
LUC: [in English]
February 14, 2017, here we are!
For Honor is in the box!
And it's gonna be a million!
[atmospheric
electronic music plays]
[in French] In the game, you have
the option - to take out the blood.
We're going to put it
as a default setting.
Oh, yeah?
We're able to do that?
Maybe this version would work
for China,
and it wouldn't be
too expensive.
You'll talk about it
with Pascal when I'm out.
LUC: I've got to stop here.
I'm leaving the seventh,
I arrive in the evening.
And, starting the eighth,
I'm doing Disney.
MAN: You're at the
hotel in Disney mode.
LUC: Yeah.
I'm in Mickey Mouse mode.
[man laughs]
I'm bringing my little girl
and my goddaughter
to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
It's a princess makeover.
So they're going to get styled,
dresses...
I feel like I've been
an absent brother, son, uncle,
husband, and father.
I'm going to reconnect
with my gang.
[in French]
Hey, I bet this is a ghost.
No!
Behind all the characters
there will be a fruit,
or a vegetable, or a candy.
You have to make him eat
some food.
Hey, you want to eat some food?
This is Roserade,
this is Pikachu.
STPHANE: That's him, Pikachu!
But it's not the same,
because I redid it.
Did it hurt when you got
your tattoo?
Look, you can still see
the marks.
I'm telling you
when it got to here,
it really, really hurt,
and it lasted four hours.
GIRL: What's a phoenix?
STPHANE: A phoenix
is an animal that is
reborn from its ashes.
Sometimes,
we want to change in life,
and sometimes we are faced
with tests,
and there is always a way
to reinvent yourself.
I want to take the time
to understand what happened.
Do I have the energy?
What do I have in the tank
and for how many projects?
That's my main question,
and I don't have
the answer today.
It hasn't really stopped since
the game has been released.
I'm still trying to take
a step back
and make sure I don't fall
into fatigue
or a downward spiral
from being tired.
My life was never in danger
on the project.
You put a certain stress
on yourself, you experience
certain emotions as if you were
on the front lines at war.
As my nine-year-old daughter
told me, "You know, Daddy,
good days always come to an end,
but so do the bad ones."
I want to make sure
I never forget that.
[discordant
electronic music playing]
JASON: Anything that was going
to happen in that project
was going to happen.
I have accepted that I am not
doing this anymore.
That was a big step.
Accepting that I won't work
on the sequel,
I won't do another,
I won't continue with this team.
It's the greatest performance
I've ever given.
That's the best I can do.
[somber electronic music plays]
It's the only time
I've ever released a game,
and then been able to play it
on day one
and not hate it.
This is the game I wanted
to play when I was a kid.
It wasn't a lie. I wasn't
kidding about the dream.
It wasn't just a story
I made up.
I really wanted to play
this game, and now I can.
And I can play it
with millions of people.
This tale will be told
in this way.
The warlord packs up
their weapons,
puts them in a wagon,
gets on their horse, and leaves.
It's a story about peace.
For Honor
is a story about peace
and how warriors create it.
MAN: What happens when we die?
What will we leave behind?
Immortality comes when...
you give your people something
that they needed
that they didn't have,
and that they can keep
when you are gone.
That is how you...
How you survive your own death.
[menacing music plays]
So you want to be a knight, eh?
You've lived your whole life
inside these castle walls, yeah?
Run up here safe.
And now you come to me
and say that you want to pick up
a weapon and defend your people?
Do you know what's out there?
Wastelands, poisoned lakes,
starving barbarians.
We are going to ride out
and retake those lands.
Yes. Those lands were ours,
and they will be ours again.
But if you are going
to pick up a sword,
remember that it will be
for the rest of your life.
We have endless enemies
to fight.
We are far fewer
than we used to be,
but these are our lands.
So, pick up your sword,
learn to use it,
and ride out with us.
But don't expect to ride back.
You'll always be a warrior,
if you start down that road.
But for those who live:
Gold, plunder, power, glory.
So, are you with me?
Well, then come aboard.
[imitating gunshots]
[in French] The reality of the
video game - industry today is,
It's a savage industry where
only three percent of all games
earn 97 percent
of the total profits.
In all creative processes
they say,
"Oh, it's normal to fail.
We have fail camps and
we laugh about our failures."
But when you're living it...
[laughter in the audience]
...it's a bit less fun,
especially when you just burned
through ten million dollars.
It was two years of my life
we were working
on something magical
until we realized we weren't
going in the right direction.
[soft electronic music plays]
This is Yannis Mallat,
the CEO
of the Toronto, Montreal,
and Quebec City studios.
Does he want us
to get back on track?
Maybe he's telling himself,
this was expensive enough,
"You should go work
on an existing brand."
I convinced him to give
my team six months
to come up with a new proposal.
And after six months,
they would decide
if they pulled the plug
or continue to invest.
I was looking
for a Creative Director
that had a game in him.
This guy arrived
at the second meeting
with a wooden sword
he made when he was 14.
JASON: When I
started this project,
I was half convinced
that I was crazy.
I pitched this protect
for ten years,
and every single person that
I pitched it to had said no.
They'd said no.
"It's not interesting, it's not
going to work, I don't get it,
it's not cool." I was starting
to think I was crazy.
STPHANE: [in French]
I've known the pain of
having something not work out,
and I've been fool enough
to try again.
MAN: [in French]
Stphane, our producer.
Our pitch will be in a mix
of English and French,
because, in order to get
a good pitch from Jason,
we need English.
JASON: [in French] I could do
my pitch in French, but...
[in English] make no sense
at all. It would...
So, I've had a game in my head
for about 12 years now.
I actually wanted to play
this game
for much longer than that,
but the industry just kept
not making it. Right?
I would go to the store
every year, and it wasn't there.
And now I download,
and I'm like,
"Where is it?
It hasn't arrived."
So, that's this game.
Okay? This game is that.
When our player
was, you know,
eight years old or so, right?
He or she was in the backyard
and found a stick and...
[imitating sword fight]
And he could do it.
Couldn't put a ball
through a hoop, right?
Couldn't write his own name in his
handwriting - very well, right?
But... Cuk! Cuk! Cuk!
"All right, man!"
So, he did what any reasonable
eight-year-old would do,
is he went and found his brother
and beat the shit out of him
with it. Right?
[laughing] Right?
Later, in high school,
picks up a baseball bat.
Something moves.
What is that? Like...
That's a little scary.
It's like...
What is that thing? Hmm!
But, wow!
Hmm...
So, he puts it down and says,
"Fuck that, I am going
to go play video games."
[electronic music plays]
[in French] It's interesting
to link our three cultures
with musical genres.
[in English]
We're bringing the Super Bowl,
like, mood and adrenaline...
[music continuing]
[In French] Heavy metal fits
with the Vikings.
Rap is interesting
for the knights.
[in English] It's like
monster truck meets UFC.
It's loud, it's dangerous,
it's full of dust,
it's full of blood.
JASON: Knight,
Viking, or Samurai.
What kind of person are you?
What would you fight for?
Here we go!
[clapping]
[in French and English]
Pam, 360, let's go.
360, Nick, Olivier.
[in English]
First of all,
we wanted to solidify
the nucleus of the game,
which is the fight mechanics.
It's our biggest risk,
and the heart
and soul of this game,
and the business model
of this game.
JASON: We convinced the
company that we had an idea
about melee sword fighting
that was a completely new way
to play these games,
was a real breakthrough
in game play.
Instead of
the traditional approach
where we expect you
to memorize combinations,
the Art of Battle
puts your attention
on your enemy's weapon
as the most important thing
that matters.
And not just on
the weapon itself,
but on that weapon's position
in space.
Yannis was here to just see
the production.
The good news is,
he really asked to see Hero.
He was looking at it and...
We sold the meeting.
He went out happy.
That said, it doesn't bring
anything new to the project.
It was more a recognition tour.
[muted electronic music plays]
[in French]
With innovation comes risk.
The more innovation,
the greater the risk.
And the greater the risk,
the more likely it is
to collapse.
Because there are too many
forces pushing against
what the team wants to do,
whether it's the pressure
to attract talent and resources,
or it's doubt
because your competition
is doing something that works.
MAN: [in English]
One thing I will do very often
is update you on what's
happening on the marketing side.
I know we're not yet ready to go
out and say, "Hey, we exist."
But in two weeks from now,
we're going to have people
from Europe and San Francisco,
marketing people from Operational
Marketing - will come here.
We're going to present them
the game. They'll come and play.
[muted electronic music plays]
LUC: [in French]
We started with Jason's
pure vision, a blank slate,
we don't have a name, or a logo,
or a cover for the box.
We don't have a trailer.
Nothing exists.
Everything needs to be created.
[in English]
When you introduce a new brand,
we want to make sure
that we start with a message
that can be understood
and resonate
into as many players
as possible.
[in English]
Blade Masters, Blade Assault,
Warriors of Honor,
Eternal Honor,
Blade Warfare, Blade Assault.
[in French]
I talked with Creative Services
in San Francisco. This is what
they came up with.
[in English]
Force of Arms, Wrath of
the Warriors, Storm of Steel,
Blade Rivals, Burden of Steel,
Bloodsport...
JASON: We want to capture
the universal feeling
of the heroic moment,
the universal feeling
of what it's like to be
a warrior on a battlefield.
There! Yes!
[grunting]
The knight fantasy
of being a protector, right,
has always really hit me hard.
My mom was a big Rodgers
and Hammerstein fan.
Musicals, right?
And her favorite musical
was Camelot.
And so I grew up
watching Lancelot
singing about, you know,
being a valorous knight,
and that whole thing was sort
of where I got started,
you know, with this fantasy.
If you were really in trouble,
we were like...
You would try to... You would
try to follow it, right?
JASON: I think fantasy is a...
It's full of lessons
about what can be
and who we are.
My dad was a collector
of religions.
Uh, by the time I was 14,
I had been, I think,
seven different things.
We had been, you know,
Christian, Buddhist, atheist,
this one agnostic thing.
We had done pagan stuff.
We had done everything.
Zen, he was into meditation.
He did...
He was member of a cult,
he was...
He did... A religion
of the month club, man.
Watching shows or, you know...
I'm always watching them
with a purpose.
What's the statement
that's being made here?
I take in entertainment
like it was a philosophy,
like it was
a statement of philosophy.
Yeah, this one.
[sighing]
[honking]
[in French] Okay, girls, you're
going to have to hurry up
because Delphine, you forgot
your gymnastics leotard
at Mom's house.
So now we've got to go by
Mom's place to get it.
This is a disaster.
So I'm just going to eat supper
at seven o'clock when I arrive.
Come here.
[laughing]
GIRL: [in French]
Well, when you start the game,
you can choose either a normal
world or a magical world,
and you can have bad guys,
like monsters.
Before you're born,
you choose a power.
STPHANE: That's cool.
And you can be
a dragon trainer,
or the queen or king.
The world that you created
is a very expensive world.
You wouldn't want to make it
a bit cheaper?
Dad, your game isn't cheap, so
my game won't be cheap either.
[laughing]
[upbeat electronic music plays]
[chatter in background]
MAN: [in English] All right!
Yeah!
[cheering]
Welcome to Hall of Heroes, where the
tournament is - taking place right now.
STPHANE: [in French] There's no game on
the market - like the one we're producing.
We had to find a way to not
look too far ahead,
but be sure that we were moving
full-speed ahead.
We started integrating
game sessions
into our development process.
[in English]
Back! Back! Back!
JASON: Every milestone
is one of these, right?
Where everyone gets together
on the team, and we make teams,
and we just beat the holy hell
out of each other, right?
We have a great time doing it.
I'm here with Jason
"The Dark Lord" VandenBerghe.
I want to get your impressions.
That was madness!
The competition
forces us to engage
with the game 100 percent,
and what happens is,
we find all the bugs,
we find out what's wrong,
we find out
if it's unfair, right?
Oh, he just took
the tower, guys!
JASON: Because after a
tournament like this,
the teams that lost,
they're going to be...
They're going to say, if there
was a reason that they lost,
if the game was unfair,
they're going to say,
"Well, it was unfair for
this reason and this reason."
[cheering]
Ha! Ha! Ha! The Dark Lord!
There's no disadvantage
to playing against Yannis,
because you get to kill him
a lot of times. It's really...
That's super fun. Bang!
Bang! Bang! Down you go!
[in French]
The pressure comes from always
fighting for survival
and in convincing management
that the money invested here
is well-spent because
of the project's potential,
rather than
on an existing brand.
[in English] How many times do I
need to remind you of this rule:
In show business, you need to be
good when it counts.
Okay! That is true.
And I'll tell you when that is.
Oh, when that is! Okay, good.
That's when I win!
That's when you win.
That's when it counts.
YANNIS: [in French]
I do combative sports.
Sometimes I take hits,
sometimes I hit back.
I know that fear, concern,
thrill, intensity comes with it.
You get that intensity
playing Hero.
Perfect, perfect!
Bring me the Dark Lord! Shit!
[in French]
Before, management would cancel
one out of every three meetings.
"Oh, there's another emergency."
We have a project
in early development.
There's always a daily emergency
that takes precedence.
Now management is on my floor
the day before
to practice
because they're all very proud
and they don't want
to get beaten
on the day of the tournament.
So I have a buy-in
from the team,
but I also have a buy-in
from management.
[chattering]
[in English] Sonic and Moonwreck, the
two - team captains, dueling here.
Sonic doing a great job
with the guard breaks,
placing those attacks
really, really well.
Moonwreck gets
a strong attack in.
This is still anyone's game.
Moonwreck takes him down.
I can't take this shit.
It's too much.
Now the knights are back
in sudden death.
They're down two guys!
[cheering]
That's a good decision. I can't
blame them for doing that.
You don't want to be caught
two-on-one in this game.
It's a great way to get a sword
in your back and to be dead.
JASON: I got an
education about bullies,
you know, for the first 20 years
of my life.
In school and being young,
I was constantly being attacked.
I was never safe. Never safe.
Because I wouldn't fight back.
All you needed to do is say
one thing to me, man,
and I would break down crying,
I'd get mad,
I'd freak out, I would give
you these huge reactions.
I get hurt really, really easy.
And that's on me.
That's not the world
constantly hurting me, right?
That's...
I'm really, really sensitive.
So...
I'm going to get hurt.
It's just going to happen.
There's no avoiding it.
If you're someone who is afraid
that something bad's
going to happen,
then understanding the
consequences of violent action
can help you with that feeling.
I think that anyone
who is interested
in how the world works
will also be interested
in violence,
because violence is the natural
consequence of conflict.
And I can be fascinated by that
and not need to express it
at all.
I have no need...
I'm not a violent person.
I am very peaceful, in fact.
[discordant
electronic music plays]
MAN: "...never had to fight,
never had to go to war,
rise against men.
The man grabs the sword,
and he scans all the details.
We cut to a first-person view
of the knight running
towards a group
of imposing Vikings.
This is the moment that we
realize how scary it can be
to be on a battlefield facing
such a strong enemy."
Are you okay?
JASON: The story,
I've always wondered
what it would be like.
I never had to, and I always
wondered if I could. That's...
You, uh...
You put your finger
on something.
[in French]
We've still got to go pitch it.
And one of the main issues
for us is,
"What are we presenting?"
[in English] "Close up on the sword.
Script. Plunge into the ground.
The hand of
a man grabs it firmly
and pulls it out. Behind him,
other soldiers
are following his steps."
STPHANE: [in French] I think we'll
have to announce - the game this year.
The real tragedy now
would be if another big project
announced a similar game.
JASON: This combat system,
this lock-on-fight dual stance.
We didn't invent this,
we discovered this, right?
The worst thing
that could happen would be
that if somebody else has been
working on it, too.
[intense electronic music plays]
We have this big meeting where,
like, me and Steph and Luc,
all the sort of core leads
of the team,
we all go to Paris to meet at HQ
with Yves Guillemot and
with the editorial group there.
So we get together,
we show what we're doing,
and then we talk about
what we'd like to do.
What our plans are.
They said, "Actually,
you know what, you guys?
We think you should go for it,
for the full box game.
The big one."
The answer is, "Yes, good.
Your current plan
is good, right?
And we'll give you this much
more. Here, take this money."
And inside I'm like,
"Yes. Oh, my God. Just like..."
All right!
Congratulation Hero team
on your fucking FPP.
[cheering]
Really well done!
It's going to get hot and heavy.
For the next year or so,
the people that you are partying
with right now
and that you're talking with
right now,
you're going to see
a lot of these faces.
And remember,
we're in this together,
we're going to do
a great fucking job.
The game is amazing.
You guys are amazing,
and I'm proud to work with
you all. Thank you very much.
[cheering]
[grunting]
[swords clanging]
[epic music plays]
[battle cry]
We have a system,
a technology that we call...
No. We don't name it.
We don't talk about that. Okay.
I think our biggest challenge
is to say, "Hey, guys!
We are here. We exist."
You saw it
with the trailer, right?
You see it when you play
with the action.
MAN: Knight, Viking,
Samurai, what's the deal?
It's about you.
It's about what do you value?
What kind of warrior
is inside of you?
MAN 2: One of the
biggest announcements
at today's the Ubisoft
press conference
is one of the big new games
that was revealed this year.
WOMAN: There is melee combat,
but this is a different style
of melee, isn't it?
Yes, it is.
We call it the Art of Battle.
Instead of it happening here
in your head,
you're not thinking about it
intellectually.
It happens down here,
in the lizard brain.
There was a big surprise
delivered by this man.
Surprise!
Surprise!
When people start playing,
they immediately start...
[grunting] Ooh!
Yeah.
It's a new system, so give
yourself a couple of minutes.
But once you get it,
that's where the fun will peak.
It's you and me,
we're going to decide this.
Two great warriors slashing
in the battlefield.
For a decade, I was like, "We should make
this game, - we should make this game."
And the answer was,
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
No, we don't make
that kind of game. No, no."
STPHANE: Today we came here
with a world dominion mode.
We have split-screen,
different multiplayer modes.
[man speaking German]
Jason VandenBerghe.
Why is it called For Honor?
JASON: The title is kind
of a question, right?
What do you think honor means?
And what would you fight for?
The Knights, it's usually
about being protectors, right?
Defending the weak, right,
the nobility of that.
But people who pick Vikings,
it's all about,
like, expression and freedom
and passion and raarr!
And then Samurai,
it's always about mastery
and, you know, discipline
and learning to focus
and working toward something
that's greater than yourself.
Drop by my desk,
I'll have it ready for you.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
JASON: We've been
going from a team
that has been really led
by one person creatively.
I've been this, you know,
like, visionary auteur pushing
and helping every piece
of the game all the way through.
To a team where that now
has been spread out.
I've given that responsibility
to ten different people,
to all the different directors,
and we're making
this organization that knows
how to make this game, right?
So if I get hit by a bus, right,
they can make the game.
That's one thing we need to fix,
though, is they don't move...
STPHANE: [in French] With the size of our
budget, - I can't just say to my bosses,
"We're doing something new.
We're going to learn
how to do it."
No. We have to compete
with the best in the world.
In order to compete
with the best,
you have to attract
the best talent.
We now have five studios
working with us.
We have people in China,
in India,
Bucharest, Germany, Quebec,
Toronto.
We have dispersed
our production.
It's become a big machine.
Five hundred people
will soon be involved
in the For Honor project.
LUC: [in French]
It's all good.
There is a lack of confidence.
Don't worry about it.
I told them, [in English]
"Calm the fuck down."
JASON: Whoever it is that
is making these decisions.
Because so far...
I don't even know who is making
these decisions.
Yeah.
STPHANE: [in French]
Do you know why Jason is upset?
MAN: [in French] He asked
for certain things to be done,
and they were changed.
He's leaving for three days
on a long weekend,
so he's panicking.
JASON: The last six months
has been really intense
because we're a big team now,
and I no longer have the time
to explain to the people
whose feelings I've hurt
what I meant.
I'll be like, "Blah."
And I'll say something,
and they'll go... [gasps]
And I can see it on their face.
I can see that I've hurt them.
And inside I go,
"Oh, no! Oh, no, no, no."
When we were a smaller project,
I could be like,
"Look, I'm really sorry,
let's talk about that,"
and take 15 minutes, 20 minutes,
and talk it out,
and so it would be fine.
But now, we got to go.
If your camera picks up speed
a little bit
and just get
the fuck over there,
we won't feel the lack
of the story quite as much.
I am very particular, right?
I want things to be like this,
or like this, or like this...
And when I get into conflict
with people,
something about the way that
I act and the way that I talk
communicates to them
that they're in danger.
And I scare people.
It feels to me like,
again, we need to make each beat
really crisp.
Imagine you're working with
a family of 208 people, right?
And then imagine
that you figure out
that you're the crazy uncle
who sometimes hurts
everyone's feelings.
I don't know. There was a weird
little thing with the grab,
but you can clean it up.
And sometimes breaks
their heart.
Action! Come on in! Argh!
[grunting]
JASON: I want to stay
and make this game...
forever.
I don't want to hurt people.
Yet, I have to tell people
things they don't want to hear,
and I have to be hard on
people sometimes
in ways that I'm not good at.
I'm clumsy, right?
And I'm required to do that
for my job.
Your hands are shaking
because you think me a monster.
You wonder what you could do.
Strike me down somehow.
Turn my legion against me.
That passion, Warden,
I live it every day.
Every breath. In that way,
we are the same.
What makes us different
is that you have not yet learned
what real monsters are made of.
Monsters, Warden,
are made of innocence.
WOMAN: War.
The natural state
of our species.
This food.
Why are we not burning it all?
WOMAN: What do you
imagine the clans
would do if we burned it all?
They'd starve, die.
They would unite.
But leave them scraps,
just enough for two,
maybe three clans,
they will fight each other
over what remains.
The wolves among them
will rise.
We're not here to kill them.
We are here to teach them
who they are.
Apollyon is the most dangerous
warrior in our game world.
She believes deeply
that wolves are allowed to feed.
I am Apollyon.
[dramatic music plays]
I bring war.
[grunting]
JASON: In For Honor,
it's a very dark setting.
It's a place where conflict
is constant, right?
The story is about being
a warrior,
being someone who will stay
and fight, right?
At the center of that conflict.
And knowing that what you're
doing may or may not be right,
may or may not be
perfectly good or evil, right?
But still doing the best
that you can do in that moment
and using every part
of your ability
in the hope that it makes
the world a better place.
I've made a lot of games, right?
Almost every other project
I've been on,
I was there to save the project.
I was there to help the project
finish. It wasn't mine.
I was there to close it.
I was there to...
to help.
But if the game was good or bad,
I always had an excuse.
If people don't like this game,
I won't have that.
I won't be able to tell myself,
"Oh, I didn't have time,"
or, "I didn't have the...
You know,
I didn't have the support,
or I didn't have... "Phew.
It'll just be, "No, we failed."
[discordant
electronic music plays]
Yeah.
I'm Aisha Tyler,
and I'm standing
in the historic Orpheum Theatre
in vaguely beautiful,
yet vaguely urine-scented
downtown Los Angeles.
It's E3 Conference time.
JASON: We are rehearsing.
We are rehearsing.
We are going to walk through
our stage performance.
Apollyon
and her Black Stone legions
crave a world
where trust is impossible.
They're going to run
the trailer,
and then I'm going to walk out,
and then we're going to have
the little story time.
And we're going to watch
the demo.
And then I come back off stage.
And I fall apart.
[explosions]
[sound in slow motion]
[grunting]
MAN'S VOICE: [in trailer]
That raider showed us
what Viking fury could do.
[in French]
The demo is lagging.
We have to change something
on the PC, and we'll restart.
LUC: [in English] No, because it's
lagging. We need to stop that.
It's lagging.
It's a waste of time right now.
It worked for a century...
MAN: We're going to roll
the backup video. Okay.
[in French] Play the backup
video to see if it works.
[in English] "And it
had begun..." Fade, logo!
Argh! Logo!
We know the plan,
they just fucked it up.
"And it had begun..." Fade
to black, punch the logo in.
With the sound,
which they fucked it up again.
It's not that!
The timing, like, the video
plays, the logo comes up...
LUC: Okay, then what's
the solution you propose?
I don't know. Because...
If you see a problem,
tell me what solution you see.
Then we can see what we can do
with the assets we have at hand.
That's the thing.
It's not like I can modify
the video. I cannot modify it.
I'm aware of that, dude.
It's not my first fucking rodeo.
Me neither,
it's not my first rodeo.
So if you have a solution,
bring it forward.
Right now, the date, which has
been the number-one question
that people have been asking us,
is just kind of a whoosh!
It's a ghost in the middle
of a transition
that's not even happening,
right? So...
STPHANE: I don't think we can
judge. I had the same comments.
But it's supposed to be there,
the mix, and after that, bang!
I think I can judge.
I think I can.
But that's the problem.
That's what we're arguing.
I don't see the need to argue.
I'm just telling you guys,
you don't think you can judge,
I think I can.
All right.
[sighing]
It's really hard
to stay focused, right?
It's really hard to stay
on top of all of that,
and have everything go well,
and maintain my emotional
equilibrium, you know?
Today, as Americans,
we grieve the brutal murder,
a horrific massacre of dozens
of innocent people.
We pray for their families,
who are grasping for answers
with broken hearts.
We stand with the people
of Orlando,
who have endured a terrible
attack on their city.
We know enough to say that
this was an act of terror
and an act of hate.
JASON: There is a lot of hate
in this world. It...
It's senseless.
There's probably people
out there
that would find this
sort of ironic, but...
This... I'm making a game
about warfare, you know?
Games put you at the center,
and sometimes that means
creating villains,
and sometimes that means putting our
characters - in difficult places,
And sometimes it means asking
you to do things that seem
difficult or grotesque
or, you know, frightening,
or all that stuff.
But that's life,
that's human life.
If I have anything to say
that can help,
the best way for me to do
that is through entertainment.
My message will come through.
Even if it's wrapped
in swords and sorcery, right?
I think that art is...
a way to strike back
against anger
and oppression and violence.
And it's all I've got.
[suspenseful music plays]
LUC: [in French]
So far we've rehearsed Saturday
morning, Sunday morning,
Sunday night.
I can't wait for it to be over
because,
on top of the jetlag, my nights
are getting worse and worse.
Last night I woke up
five to eight times,
and I don't normally get up
at night.
I sleep with this thing
on my face.
To get up and go pee,
I've got to take it off
and turn off the machine.
Every year the media will cover
the most anticipated games.
This week we had GameSpot,
one of the biggest sites,
put up a list of E3 2016's
most anticipated games.
When you look at it, For Honor
is in second place,
alongside Battlefield, Zelda,
other monsters of the industry.
[suspenseful music plays]
[chattering]
Showtime, people!
[applause]
["Don't Stop Me Now" playing]
[in French]
They didn't invite me.
[in English]
It's going to be awesome.
[Jason sighs]
[atmospheric music plays]
[birds chirping]
APOLLYON: There were no signs.
It came without warning.
[menacing music plays]
[rumbling]
[intense music plays]
[screaming]
[swords clanging]
[cheers and applause]
Ah!
[cheers and applause]
Oh, yes.
Desperation drives us to war.
It is trust that can end it.
Apollyon and her Black Stone
legions crave a world
where trust is impossible.
[cheers and applause]
I'd like you to meet our game
director on For Honor,
Roman Campos-Oriola.
Come on out, Roman.
[cheers and applause]
My brother. Good luck.
How did I do?
Great.
[swords clanging and grunting]
Bye-bye.
And you're dead.
Nailed it.
Okay. Nice fight.
[intense music plays]
[grunting]
[clapping]
[speaking along with narration]
..they would call it.
And it had begun.
[audience applauding]
And they fucked up the logo!
They fucked up the logo for
the seventh consecutive times.
Congratulations.
[applause]
Give it up for Roman!
Jason VandenBerghe.
If you are looking for something
to give to that very special
someone in your life,
For Honor will be available
on Valentine's Day.
[laughs]
What could be more romantic
than dinner, drinks,
and an all-night bender
of epic warfare?
[cheers and applause]
We're talking to
the whole Internet right now.
Well, like ten fans.
[upbeat electronic music plays]
[conversations indistinct]
[music continuing]
This is
the decompression chamber.
I'm only at ease
when I'm alone or with my wife.
People are always surprised,
but I'm an introvert.
I'm never comfortable
when there's...
When I'm at the office
or the...
What's really weird about that,
though, is that I can't...
I need the social stimulation,
I need the pressure to create.
So my life has been
about finding a balance
between jumping into these
highly stressful situations,
and then getting away from them,
and then depressurizing,
and then going back in,
back and forth.
[discordant
electronic music plays]
Team meeting.
Team meeting.
We have to talk about E3.
It was
a very, very, very good event.
We exceeded
every business objective
we had walking in there.
Now we have many discussions
with potential partners,
from clothing, action figures,
animation series,
amusement parks.
[cheers and applause]
We surprised people at E3.
That means that we'll do
a bigger world tour.
There is going
to have presentation
that was not planned.
You cannot miss that,
even if it's painful.
MAN: I'm now in front
of the For Honor booth
in the middle of the action
at GamesCon.
So here we have 64 pods,
so you can try the campaign,
you can try the multiplayer
with your friends.
I was really looking forward
to this game,
this style of combat,
you feel this sense of realism.
The control system was a bit
different than I'm used to.
At the beginning,
I was having a little bit
of trouble to get into it.
NARRATOR: You guard incoming attacks
to the right, left, or top,
And attempt to retaliate
where there's an opening.
It sounds simple, right?
Well, it isn't.
I'd like to see
maybe sneak-attack kills,
like, sneak kills from behind.
That would be, like, useful.
STPHANE: [in French] I made Paquito
work - till midnight last night.
I'll look at it now.
A triple A experience in 2016
is no longer simply a question
of having a good game because
if you have a great game,
but can't connect
with your friends online,
it ends up being a shitty game.
Because we're having trouble
staffing the online portion,
I have to cut features
that have been developed.
To save two weeks
of online programming,
I have no choice but to cut them
from my game.
Basically, we're asking people
to run 100 meters,
when really they're doing
a marathon.
I've had seven resignations
in the last few weeks.
I want Simon to put pressure on
Bndicte for them to hire more.
We need to be aggressive,
because we're really in trouble.
You remember,
we had to go up to 600 people
in order to maintain the
three branches of the project,
bring three core teams together.
I don't have the means today
to staff like that.
But I don't take on a project
if I don't have a staffing plan.
We'll collapse
like a house of cards.
LUC: The brand week meeting...
I'll ask for a video conference.
We'll look at the date.
LUC: At one point,
we need to make sacrifices.
The business team
should lead brand week.
It's their presentation.
STPHANE: You're still trying
to delegate work.
There's always at least
one person from the team.
LUC: So I have a choice. We don't
participate - in consumer events.
I'm not the one you should be
telling that to.
Tell your bosses.
You are my boss.
Yes, but the people in Paris
are your clients.
Your clients
are your real bosses.
It's a meeting for them.
Not that one.
We'll go for ten minutes.
JASON: I am hiding.
I have found this wonderful
booth of solitude
that's far enough away
from the beaten path
that no one can find me.
So I can get my work done.
I've given up control of over
90% of this game by this point.
So Roman is directing
the entire multiplayer effort
and almost all of the game play.
Roman and Gaelec and Jeff
and those other guys,
and I am not involved
right now on that,
because I've turned my attention
on narratives,
cinematics, writing.
I was writing at 7:00 a.m.
this morning,
and I'll be writing
until 10:00 p.m. tonight.
And I'll just keep rolling
like that through the weekend.
WOMAN: Hello!
That's lunch.
It's not real food.
Remember when we lived in France
and real food was
part of the culture?
Yes.
It's nice for you to come home
for lunch during the week.
[laughing]
I like it when you do that.
How's it at the office?
What were you doing
this morning?
Kill me.
WOMAN: Jason, he's 100
percent in the game,
and I'm like a lifeline
back out.
Because I'm always keeping us
in the room together.
It's going to be fine,
it's going to be fine.
It's going to be fine.
JASON: I'm really not running
the show in my head.
I just kind of poke at things.
And then suddenly I go,
"Poke." Oh!
When I find it, it's not,
"Oh, that's it," in my mind.
I go, "Poke."
I can feel it in my heart.
I feel it in my body, right?
My body goes,
"Yes, that's what we're doing."
It's how I work as a director.
I have
this deep kind of... rrr!
This emotional part.
This sort of...
whatever this is,
a monster that...
that is just going to do
what it's going to do.
It keeps me up at night.
[soft electronic music plays]
Nice to see you, buddy.
My brother!
Good to see you.
We are doing a three-hour
stream from PAX for For Honor.
We're doing a...
For Honor?
For Honor, yeah.
What's that?
Oh, the game!
Yeah, thanks!
God! Sorry.
Yeah. I love you.
Like a brother. Like a brother.
Similar to a brother.
[laughing]
What's the weather like
in Montreal?
Does the air always smell
like baguettes?
[Jason laughs]
Yeah! Yes.
That's how I picture it
in my mind.
Constantly, constantly.
MAN: It's just weird to have
breakfast here in the morning,
instead of at like two o'clock
in the morning.
[Jason laughs]
Do you know what you want?
Yes.
"Southwestern Exposure,"
six eggs.
MAN: The "Full House," please.
And six eggs, right?
Six, yeah.
I am not enough of a man
for the 12.
[Jason laughs]
BEN: Is there a sword
in that cane yet?
JASON: You know what?
I was in France,
and this French cop car goes...
I'm walking, and it's...
[imitating screeching tires]
Four cops get out,
and they're like,
"Excusez-moi, monsieur,
I need to see your cane."
"Okay." And I'm not making
this up, he goes...
He fiddled with it?
He goes...
Fiddle, fiddle.
"Do you have a sword in here?"
[Ben laughs]
And I go, "No."
He goes, "Okay.
Have a nice day."
Gets in his car, drives off.
What is it about
your whole shtick
that could make him think
you might be carrying a sword?
[Jason laughs]
Because you look like you're
just on your way to your job
at the insurance company, right?
To work on actuarial tables.
That was...
I was being profiled.
You're profiled.
I'm being profiled, man.
You're profiled.
Yeah, I want more.
BEN: This will be fun because if
he has one more cup of coffee,
He turns into a maniac.
The Vikings.
You know,
those guys starved all winter
and lived off of
other people's food all summer.
They didn't actually exist.
The biggest assholes ever.
They didn't exist.
Yes, they did.
Have you read 1066?
That guy didn't.
That guy didn't.
That guy didn't.
The Danish literally came down
and invaded England.
I'm with you. The Danes exist.
The Danes existed.
Those guys, fictional.
That's an interesting point.
Yes.
Finally. 45 years,
and you finally
make an interesting point.
[Jason laughs]
I'm just going to savor
this moment.
I'm just going to enjoy it.
So good.
[soft electronic music plays]
JASON: I think I was 14,
my dad got involved in
a community play.
And it was the first time
I had been in a theater
when the show was not on.
And I was blown away.
It was like seeing
behind The Matrix.
It was this feeling
of incredible revelation.
It was like, "Oh, my God!
This is the theater
before the show begins."
It's like watching creation.
It's like watching the universe
be created.
It's... It's incredible.
Aspiring Knights, Samurai, and
Vikings, here in the PAX arena
and in Twitch video players
online around the world,
welcome to the For Honor
PAX West gauntlet.
JASON: In games, we love to hear
about the process
of making games,
we love to watch
the game unfold,
we love to experience it
before it's completed.
HOST: Jason VandenBerghe!
[cheers and applause]
JASON: I can't imagine more
meaningful work for me.
I work in the temple of Thespis,
you know?
I devoted my life
to entertaining people
and to trying to find new ways
to reach them
and to fill their hearts
with new ideas
through entertainment, right?
[all roaring]
[jet engines]
This is how I'll spend
the rest of my life.
I may not make video games
my whole life,
but I'm going to be
entertaining people.
And I'll do that
until the day I die.
[upbeat electronic music plays]
[woman speaking Russian]
So far, everything we've been
doing on For Honor
has a tremendous impact
in Russia.
The trailers have
a lot of views.
The positive feedback
we're getting.
A lot of registrations on our
website are coming from Russia.
So it's like, "Okay.
Let's do something for Russia."
[speaking Russian]
Our Creative Director,
he first thought about For Honor
after having
a German long-sword class.
This is what we want
the people to experience
when playing For Honor is,
we want you to be
on the battlefield
experiencing the emotion,
the danger of being surrounded
by all those epic warriors.
[in French]
It's past 10:00 p.m.,
and I still have to work.
As for sleep, it's a good thing
I have my machine.
I'm like Darth Vader.
Apnea means you're never
in a deep sleep.
You wake up constantly.
You choke and stop breathing.
Health problems come
with not breathing properly.
When you don't sleep well,
you don't get enough oxygen,
and it's bad for your heart.
I was told that I was
three to six months away
from a heart attack.
Some people stop eating
when they're stressed.
When I get stressed, I eat.
GIRL: Hello!
Hey, Lili, how are you?
You know, the kids understand
that Daddy works,
but Monday morning,
when I drove my kids to school,
the little one was crying.
She didn't want me to go.
It breaks my heart.
Even the older one,
once the little one was gone,
she hugged me and said,
"Daddy, I don't want you
to leave."
So, it's not easy.
[in French]
There are consequences
to not achieving
this summer's staffing plan.
You're telling me this
during our biggest crunch time.
The team is tired and fighting
for its survival.
As of today, the release date
has not been secured.
You can't just say,
"Okay, Cardin,
open the floodgates."
In May, I was 500 people short
to implement the brand plan.
Today I'm not only missing
those people,
I didn't even have time
to find them last May.
You drop this in my lap in
October while all my directors
are fighting like dogs
to deliver the game on time.
My job is to secure
the shipping date
because it's up in the air
right now,
and delaying the launch would
have major consequences
on the company.
WOMAN: This is IGN News, where
split-screen functionality
has been officially cut
from Ubisoft's upcoming
medieval brawler For Honor.
MAN: And now, it has
been confirmed by Ubisoft
that the feature has been
dropped from the game entirely.
MAN 2: Anything that was
co-op or split-screen is gone.
Ouch!
MAN: The team had
spoken many times
about the importance
of split-screen
as a feature and how it applies
to their vision.
WOMAN: In a 2015 interview
with GameSpot,
creative director
Jason VandenBerghe said that,
"The feature was absolutely
key for us."
Split-screen, super required,
because this is a game
about fighting with weapons.
MAN: During an interview with
IGN, - producer Stphane Cardin
Said the change was made
very recently.
We decided this week to cut
the split-screen.
It was a feature that we loved,
but for us it was critical
to make the decision now,
so we can polish all
the features at a triple A level
and make sure that we have
the most amazing experience.
[man 3 speaking German]
MAN 4: Maybe somewhere down
the road Ubisoft realized...
MAN: For me, For Honor is one
of my most anticipated games
of next year.
STPHANE: [in French] I want to
take advantage - of this meeting
Because people are tired
and unhappy.
I want to tell them
we are aware of the situation,
and I want to work with you
today. I'm making it a point
to improve our methods
for planning the post-launch.
We have to break the perception
that only I can do it.
WOMAN: Mm-hmm.
[In English]
I know with the live period,
we suffered a lot.
And, to me, the thing I'm
asking you is to open your mind
and work closely with us
to make it happen.
But I also need your help
for organization.
Please stop to be...
stop to be negative,
saying nothing will change.
We will again make things
change internally.
And I will work my ass very hard
to make sure we have
a healthy environment
and a healthy calendar
for everyone.
[applause]
WOMAN: Yes, we are closing now.
December sixth
we send our bill to QC
to get a Gold validation
from them.
If we don't get a green light,
we are missing the date.
STPHANE: [in French]
Failing is always a possibility.
Now we're getting close
to what I call "the red zone."
Early on in the project,
you can always say, "Oh,
we'll reflect on it later."
Later doesn't exist anymore.
JASON: I'm going through
this weird, weird process
of letting go,
and so I'm sort of separating
from the game,
and there's a depression that
comes after you stop, right,
when you create something.
At least for me.
I get really like, ugh, sad.
No game wants to be finished.
You have to force it.
My brothers!
How is it going?
How you doing, sir?
JASON: Oh, dear!
Look at what you...
This is lovely.
These are lovely.
MAN: It's interesting that
you have time for this today.
Yes.
It's like, "Wow.
What's going on?
Did something happen?"
Listen.
It's the stress relief.
Did you fire yourself?
I did!
No, I'm done, dude.
I'm done. I'm done.
I'm done.
No.
Yes, I am done.
No.
My role on the project
is over. Yes.
So you wander the halls
forlornly, looking for...
Yes, yes, yes.
No, but you're still there.
Yeah, I have an office,
I'm sitting with the sound team,
but I have no tasks.
Like, I'm done.
They no longer care
about my opinion.
[mysterious music plays]
JASON: These barbarians,
they seem like
they're good people, huh?
They embrace each other
like they were all kin.
But that is all a lie.
When night falls, they stab
each other with their knives.
[music continuing]
Writing Apollyon
was maybe the closest
to putting a lot of my own views
into a character.
[battle cry]
Apollyon believes that the only
way that you can know yourself
is through
life-and-death survival.
You know,
experience is being challenged
and fighting for your life.
She believes that that's
the only way to self-knowledge.
APOLLYON: Your emperor is dead.
Will you take his place?
SAMURAI: After I kill
the rest of them,
I'm coming to kill you.
[Apollyon laughs]
A wolf.
Leave the palace to Seijuro.
The others can fight
for the scraps.
JASON: Truth is,
when you fight for something
that you believe in,
win or lose,
you become immortal.
You're remembered.
Warriors are remembered because
of the battles that they fight.
And we all want immortality.
We all want to be remembered.
[soft electronic music plays]
[in French]
On a four-to-five-year project,
the project is your backdrop,
but it becomes your life,
your whole way of life.
You can be the best manager
in the world.
You can have the best methods,
try to take on
everyone's problems,
try to manage project stuff,
manage expectations,
deliver everything you had
to deliver.
But at a certain point,
you lose your bearings.
Everyone has expectations.
You have expectations
in your personal life,
expectations at work.
You have people on your team
who believe in
what you sold them,
and being able to go
through all of that...
In four and a half years,
I gave it everything I had.
Ambition is good,
but do you have all the tools
to manage this adrenaline,
this pressure?
[fire crackling]
[in English]
I really, really miss you all.
Um, I just
want to clarify something,
because I just disappeared
before Christmas.
My command center
just shut down.
Just shut down.
I woke up, and I was not able
to just think.
And I went and said,
"Go and get help."
So, I just want to share
that with you,
just telling you that,
you know, it's part of life.
I'm good to give advice.
I'm really bad to follow
my own advice.
I don't recommend you
to pass through
the hell I passed through.
I really love you,
and I'm really, really happy
to be back with you.
[in French]
Like a big bag of rocks.
I just did it like that.
It fell.
The first thing
they did was break the ego.
They slammed it
with a sledgehammer.
Sometimes you're like, "I'm
going to think about myself."
You spend, what,
15-20 minutes on it?
I spent 14 hours a day, 21 days
closed off from everything.
[in English]
Mr. VandenBerghe!
How are you, sir?
A lot better. A lot better.
I went far. I went far.
But I'm back.
Good. It was a good break.
Yeah.
So, I need to talk to you,
if you've got time.
STPHANE: Yeah. I will
just look at the schedule.
Maybe this afternoon.
I just need a half an hour.
JASON: I'm done with the project
and kind of winding down,
And what am I going to do next?
I have these ideas
for the sequel.
Everyone's waiting
for the game to come out,
so that we can see
if it was a success or not.
And until that happens,
it's going to be really hard
for anybody to listen to me
about what I think
we should do next, right?
[chattering]
[in French] - How are you, buddy?
Very good.
I'm happy to see you again.
Me, too. I'm happy to be here.
That's what matters.
YANNIS: [in English] For Honor
is a very special project.
It started from a sparkle
that you guys saw
in a totally blue ocean.
And you're helping the studio
and the whole company
to shine and to thrive.
Thank you very much.
It's an honor.
[cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
STPHANE: Five years already.
We knew we were touching
something special,
and you guys delivered
on every step.
I want to thank you very much.
I love you all.
Thank you
and enjoy the champagne.
Yeah!
[cheering]
Open the gate!
Congratulations!
Good job.
JASON: Yannis got up and talked,
and Steph got up and talked,
And I didn't talk.
I wasn't invited.
[chattering]
So, cheers!
You'll forgive me if
I don't dance on my own grave.
There's no grave.
Yeah. Okay. Sure.
I'm going to go talk to Steph.
You're a very responsible guy.
You can decide how you react.
Sure.
JASON: I am a hard
man to understand,
so people are left to interpret
what I want and what I do
through the lens of whatever
they think I am.
Congratulations, Steph!
Congratulations, my friend!
JASON: I love peace,
but I'm not comfortable in it.
I fight,
and I live to create peace,
but, once it's there,
I don't know what to do.
When Steph and I sat down,
it was clear that we're...
we're not going
to continue, right?
The last two years,
he had to make a bunch
of really unpleasant decisions.
Did those decisions and
my decisions end up in a place
where we're going to separate?
Yeah. We're going to separate.
[dramatic]
electronic music plays]
There's a word that we have...
That we don't talk much about
anymore,
which I've had to learn about
on this project.
Um, and that is "nobility."
Nobility means
that you do the thing
that you don't want to do
even though
it hurts you beyond measure,
because you know that it's
what the people need you to do.
And you suck it up,
and you don't complain.
And you just do it.
STPHANE: [in French]
It started off
with a production team
that was really looking
for a project.
We came across
a Creative Director, Jason.
We had the skeleton
and the muscles,
but we didn't have the soul.
We were missing the heart.
And Jason's dream, his passion,
his energy,
it fit with the team.
LUC: Stphane?
STPHANE: What hurts
me the most today
is that we actually do
many things with people
that we appreciate and
that we love on a daily basis,
but out of pride, ego,
and competitiveness,
people don't acknowledge it.
Can we just respect
and love each other
from the outset?
I mean, we're together.
I give hugs!
Congratulations!
You all get hugs.
Thank you very much.
Aww!
STPHANE: We're going
to be left with relationships.
That's what we will remember.
STPHANE: [in English]
Jason, kneel!
[tense music plays]
Congratulations,
congratulations, enjoy it.
STPHANE: [in French]
It's often said
that delivering a project
like this is a bit like giving
birth. Well, that involves pain.
It wasn't always rosy.
There were bumps in the road,
and it affected some people.
CONAN O'BRIEN:
I'm chasing Tom Brady,
who is not engaging me.
STPHANE: It's part of the game.
Wait! No, no!
Get his ass.
JASON: The parts
of my personality
that I am currently being told
are the reason that I need to go
are the same parts
of my personality that made me
the best choice and the reason
that they gave me that team.
I'm not a very good soldier,
so I have to live
with the consequences.
JASON: [to Yannis] It's a really
dark place - that I'm in right now.
My baby is being taken away
from me.
Like all babies.
Yeah. Well, it's not the way
it's usually done.
So I'm not going to be
invited back.
And the reasons
for that are not okay with me.
I'm happy to let it go out
in the world.
I'll find something else
to do, right?
But...
it's one of the worst things
that could happen in the middle
of one of the best things
that's possible.
So, I'm not in a good space.
I'm really not.
The actual answer, though, to why
does it keep - happening to me?
I actually had to think about
this. I know the answer now.
Awesome.
I will tell you a story.
I will tell you a story.
Hey! Hey!
Hey!
JASON: I can tell you
the story of a warlord
who found a people who were
in trouble, had been defeated.
And this warlord came in and
inspired them and organized them
and trained them
and gave them weapons,
and then formed an army
and reclaimed the land.
[rap music plays in venue]
And now peace begins.
And the farmers
go back to their fields,
and the traders and the
merchants arrive in the city,
and now everything
is returning to normal.
And so a day comes
when the council,
the priests, and the merchants
all come to the warlord and say,
"You need to go."
It's the curse of the warlord.
Right?
The game is amazing.
It's... beautiful.
It's an incredible achievement.
And I will never work
on it again.
Imagine that you have a child,
and imagine that that child
grows and goes to college.
And imagine that
when they leave for college,
they sit down with you, and they
have a private conversation,
and they tell you that they
never want to see you again.
"I'm sorry, Dad,
but you're just too intense.
I'm going to go
and do my own life,
but please
don't contact me again."
[sigh]
I'm trying to just be okay
with it.
I'm trying to just
not freak out.
Because, uh...
I don't have another choice
that I can make.
I'm going to go to do
the live stream today.
And there's nobody there
who under... who...
Who's aware of it.
Here we are.
JASON: So everyone else is here
celebrating For Honor and
is ready to launch the game.
Hey!
This is a little over-the-top
with the crown and the sword.
This is going too far.
It's too far for you?
Well, it's not too far for me.
This is right up my alley.
JASON: It's like being an actor.
I have to find in myself
the part of me
that is genuinely excited
about that moment, right?
It's not pretending.
I don't need to pretend.
Hi!
WOMAN: Do you want to keep
this little
5 o'clock shadowy stuff going?
You don't want to trim it down?
It's part of the look.
That's why I'm asking.
JASON: This is just what I am.
Melodramatic.
It's just the deal.
Love it.
WOMAN: In the meantime,
let's head back to Chris
who's sitting down with Jason.
Jason,
welcome to the large couch.
JASON: This is my religion.
It's the theater of the mind.
Entertainment, games, movies,
books, all of this stuff.
It's the theater of the mind.
[electronic music plays]
[indistinct conversations]
I'm coming for you!
Shit!
JASON: It's the lens
through which we
understand how the world works
without having to literally go
to war ourselves, right?
[cheering and laughing]
It's a way for people
to be warned
and to learn about
what the world contains
to better prepare themselves
for what's happening
in their real life.
[chattering]
We reject philosophy
as a study in our culture
these days, right?
Philosophy has been
sort of pushed to the side.
But we revere
our entertainment forms, right?
Well, it's the same.
Entertainment is
philosophy in motion.
Huzzah!
[cheers and applause]
MAN: Bye-bye.
Jason VandenBerghe.
LUC: Raining, day's ending,
we're walking in the distance.
[singing] My friend
The end is near
And so we face
The final curtain
Regrets, I've had a few
But then again...
JASON: The time is coming
to lift the curtain,
turn on the lights,
and let the creation speak
for itself, right?
Let it stand there
and be judged.
And I won't be there.
I'll be in the audience.
[upbeat electronic music plays]
STPHANE: [in French] We wanted
to release the perfect game
for Valentine's Day,
a game for love.
We wanted something
more immersive,
something less mental
and much more from the heart.
[in French] We really wanted for
players to be able to experience
what you experience
in Braveheart or in 300.
STPHANE: This year,
the 14th of February
is not time for making love,
it'll be time for making war.
So, get ready for the big
release of For Honor.
[electronic music continuing]
LUC: Did he buy For Honor?
Thank you.
Hi! My name is Luc,
I work with the development
team. Show me the game,
so we can see it
in the photo.
[shutter clicks]
Thank you.
Thanks very much.
The game is released!
Ahh!
We're at over 700,000
right now.
We're not giving any numbers.
Did you play the Conan video
this morning?
Yes.
Cool.
Luc and Stphane, thank you
very much for having me.
Do you already have preliminary
numbers as far as downloads?
We've got some, but we can't
give them away. It's going well.
It's going very well.
We're happy.
Let's just say today
there was an enthusiasm...
Where'd you get that?
I laid down
in a pile of game cases.
That's a good one.
Yeah, you like it?
Yeah. Put it on Facebook.
Fuck, it's blowing up
like crazy.
Do you have any copies
of For Honor left?
WOMAN: Yeah.
Did you sell some today?
Yeah, quite a lot.
STPHANE: What's that?
It says "collector's edition"
on the box.
MAN: There's not
enough for everyone.
Oh, no.
It's cool!
[laughing]
LUC: [in English]
February 14, 2017, here we are!
For Honor is in the box!
And it's gonna be a million!
[atmospheric
electronic music plays]
[in French] In the game, you have
the option - to take out the blood.
We're going to put it
as a default setting.
Oh, yeah?
We're able to do that?
Maybe this version would work
for China,
and it wouldn't be
too expensive.
You'll talk about it
with Pascal when I'm out.
LUC: I've got to stop here.
I'm leaving the seventh,
I arrive in the evening.
And, starting the eighth,
I'm doing Disney.
MAN: You're at the
hotel in Disney mode.
LUC: Yeah.
I'm in Mickey Mouse mode.
[man laughs]
I'm bringing my little girl
and my goddaughter
to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
It's a princess makeover.
So they're going to get styled,
dresses...
I feel like I've been
an absent brother, son, uncle,
husband, and father.
I'm going to reconnect
with my gang.
[in French]
Hey, I bet this is a ghost.
No!
Behind all the characters
there will be a fruit,
or a vegetable, or a candy.
You have to make him eat
some food.
Hey, you want to eat some food?
This is Roserade,
this is Pikachu.
STPHANE: That's him, Pikachu!
But it's not the same,
because I redid it.
Did it hurt when you got
your tattoo?
Look, you can still see
the marks.
I'm telling you
when it got to here,
it really, really hurt,
and it lasted four hours.
GIRL: What's a phoenix?
STPHANE: A phoenix
is an animal that is
reborn from its ashes.
Sometimes,
we want to change in life,
and sometimes we are faced
with tests,
and there is always a way
to reinvent yourself.
I want to take the time
to understand what happened.
Do I have the energy?
What do I have in the tank
and for how many projects?
That's my main question,
and I don't have
the answer today.
It hasn't really stopped since
the game has been released.
I'm still trying to take
a step back
and make sure I don't fall
into fatigue
or a downward spiral
from being tired.
My life was never in danger
on the project.
You put a certain stress
on yourself, you experience
certain emotions as if you were
on the front lines at war.
As my nine-year-old daughter
told me, "You know, Daddy,
good days always come to an end,
but so do the bad ones."
I want to make sure
I never forget that.
[discordant
electronic music playing]
JASON: Anything that was going
to happen in that project
was going to happen.
I have accepted that I am not
doing this anymore.
That was a big step.
Accepting that I won't work
on the sequel,
I won't do another,
I won't continue with this team.
It's the greatest performance
I've ever given.
That's the best I can do.
[somber electronic music plays]
It's the only time
I've ever released a game,
and then been able to play it
on day one
and not hate it.
This is the game I wanted
to play when I was a kid.
It wasn't a lie. I wasn't
kidding about the dream.
It wasn't just a story
I made up.
I really wanted to play
this game, and now I can.
And I can play it
with millions of people.
This tale will be told
in this way.
The warlord packs up
their weapons,
puts them in a wagon,
gets on their horse, and leaves.
It's a story about peace.
For Honor
is a story about peace
and how warriors create it.