Ubisoft debuted a new trailer for Far Cry 5 during the PlayStation Media Showcase at Paris Games Week 2017 revealing the game’s “Friends for Hire” co-op mode.
Here’s an overview of the mode, via Ubisoft:
In this mode, players will be able to team up with one of their friends to free Hope County from the Project at Eden’s Gate cult.
Immediately following the in-game tutorial, Far Cry 5 will be playable via online co-op. All earned experience and inventory items, excluding quest-based items, will carry over following each co-op session. While exploring Montana, each player will see and collect their own loot. However, the host player is the only player who will keep their story progress.
To help players in their mission to take down the cult, the host player will still be able to recruit “Guns For Hire” or “Fangs for Hire” keeping in mind that you can have up to two buddies, with one being another player, join you in your squad. Far Cry 5 “Friends For Hire” two-player co-op will allow players to explore Hope County and take down the Project at Eden’s Gate in a surprising and chaotic new fashion expanding the possibility of the game’s open world.
Far Cry 5 is due out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 27.
Far Cry is as much about capturing natural beauty as it is about explosive mayhem, and with Far Cry 5, the bar for re-creating the wilderness is especially high. Unlike the fictional Kyrat or Rook Islands, Montana’s forests, farmlands, and highways will feel familiar to a lot of players – and that means the developers needed to accurately capture every detail, from the wildlife to the logos on roadside shops to the bark on trees, to make Hope County feel like a convincing place.
“We needed to change the way we prepared ourselves,” says Isaac Papismado, graphic assistant on Far Cry 5. “In the past, we used the internet, we used a lot of secondary sources, books, things like that. Whereas now, we really want to go onsite with a team with cameras, and get as much as we can.”
That meant taking a series of trips to Montana, during which the developers trekked into small towns and wilderness locations. They got to know Montana’s ecosystem, wildlife, and people, and took thousands of photos, many of which were used to re-create the landscape in a process called photogrammetry. Using photogrammetry, objects like trees, vegetation, buildings, and even people are photographed from multiple angles and scanned to create lifelike 3D objects. This technique led not only to some of the most detailed environments Far Cry has seen to date, but to a few surprises that made their way into the story.
“When Richard, our lead on biomes, came back and scanned a birch, and there was actually a heart shape with initials and names, and we’re like ‘this is awesome!'” says Associate Producer Philippe Fournier. “This is the level of detail you can find in some of the assets. We can tweak it and make it story-based, but getting that sort of detail is definitely a first for us.”
The team’s photos ended up informing not just the look of Far Cry 5’s environments, but the way the game world itself was structured. Like the real Montana, Far Cry 5’s landscape is dotted with road signs and billboards, and they aren’t just set dressing; they’re there to organically alert you to where you are, direct you to specific businesses or locations that might be of help, and even unlock intel about good fishing spots. And a big part of making those messages stick out is through branding.
“Every logo is almost a character in and of itself,” says Fournier. “You’re always asking, ‘what’s the history behind that? Who’s the owner? What’s next, where can I find this person? I see there’s a shop, maybe I can find this shop somewhere?’ And it attracts you to go and find it, so it ties into the exploration of the world as you see those signs.”
Another key part of understanding where you are is in the businesses themselves, which are frequently named for their region or town, or after the characters who run them. In fact, says Graphic Assistant Marco Beauchemin, it wasn’t unusual during development for a business and its branding to develop from characters who appeared in the storyline.
“We have that guy from the narrative, and that guy should have a marina, so let’s give that guy’s name to the marina,” says Beauchemin. From there, that name becomes part of logos and signage, radio ads, billboards, and even vehicles associated with the marina, all of which make that marina feel more like a real place instead of just a point of interest on your map.
The approach to branding isn’t just about business, either. It extends to the homes of the characters themselves; the team wanted to create interiors that felt lived-in, with decorations that tell you something about the person who lives there, what they do, and how well they take care of their stuff.
Another thing that came out of the branding process was the identity of the resistance movement you’ll build in Hope County, which stems from the Hope County Cougars, a local baseball team. Starting out as a sign to dress up a part of a baseball field, the team’s branding spread to pennants and promotional calendars in the game’s bars.
“During production, we came to ‘who are the rebels, what are their logos?'” says Beauchemin. “We took that baseball team. It’s a team of people that are really grounded in the region, so it’s normal that the rebels would take that as their logo, so let’s go for it. And then the narrative added to that with a character who’s all about the baseball team, and we can go into someone’s house and we know that guy was playing for the Cougars a long time ago.”
All of these elements combine to create a rich backdrop for an explosive adventure to liberate Hope County from the grip of The Project at Eden’s Gate cult. Far Cry 5’s world is packed with activity and danger – not the least of which comes from the bears, wolves, skunks, and feared wolverines that might complicate a mission by attacking at any time – and its version of Montana is a beautiful, diverse place to explore.
Far Cry 5 launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on February 27. For more info on the game, check out our previous coverage.
Ubisoft Decides to Invest Additional Development Time in Three Games
Today, Ubisoft announced it is investing more time in the development of three upcoming games. Far Cry 5 is now slated for release on March 27th, 2018 (instead of February 27th, 2018) and The Crew 2 will come out in the first half of Fiscal 2018-19 (rather than on March 16th, 2018). In addition, one of the three unannounced franchise games initially planned for release in Fiscal 2018-19 now will be released in Fiscal 2019-20.
Christine Burgess-Quémard, Ubisoft’s Worldwide Studios Executive Director, said, “This decision is in line with our strategic vision of developing even more engaging and higher quality experiences for gamers. Taking more time with Assassin’s Creed Origins enabled our talented development team to fully express their creative vision. As expected, this had a very positive impact on the game’s quality and largely participated to its commercial success. Taking a similar approach, we have decided to invest additional development time in three upcoming games.”
This announcement is being made against a particularly favourable backdrop for Ubisoft, with the month of November seeing continued excellent sales momentum both for back-catalog and new releases.
As a result of both the adjusted lineup and the confirmation of the positive sales trends, Ubisoft is updating its financial 2017-18 targets, notably by revising its profitability upward.
2017-18: Profitability target revised upward
• Sales: Eur 1,640.0 million versus the previous guidance of Eur 1,700.0 million
• Third-quarter sales: Eur 700.0 million versus Eur 630.0 million previously
• Record-high non-IFRS operating margin: 16.5% versus 15.9% previously
2018-19: Targets confirmed and higher visibility
• Sales: Eur 2,100.0 million, unchanged
• The Group is standing by its sales target, with a further move towards a more recurring profile which provides additional visibility: higher levels of back-catalog sales and digital revenue and a lower number of units expected for the 4 AAA releases (The Crew 2, Skull & BonesTM and 2 unannounced franchises). The assumptions underlying Ubisoft’s revenue guidance will be updated at the time of the fiscal third quarter sales release. As a reminder, previously-announced assumptions for 2018-19 were total sales of 28 million units for the four AAA games (3 unannounced franchises and Skull & BonesTM) and digital revenue accounting for more than 55% of the overall sales figure for the fiscal year.
• Free cash flow: approximately Eur 300.0 million, unchanged
Alain Martinez, Chief Financial Officer, stated “Our back-catalog performance throughout November followed the same excellent trends as in the first half of the year and sales for Assassin’s Creed Origins continued their positive launch trajectory. As a result, we are now in a position to both update our financial 2017-18 targets, notably by revising our profitability upward, as well as invest additional development time in our future releases. These positive evolutions, which also give us higher visibility for 2018-19, demonstrate we are successfully transforming our model to make our business more recurring and profitable.”
Ubisoft will publish its sales for the third fiscal quarter on Thursday, February 8th, 2018, after the close of stock market trading.