Ubisoft Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët -- during an interview with French newspaper Le Monde -- has said that he would prefer to ditch traditional linear narrative structures and things like cutscenes in favor of more player freedom.
Hascoët told Le Monde that he wants players to have more freedom to enjoy themselves on their own terms.
“What interests me is to create worlds that are interesting to me as well as anyone else. If I have a game set in San Francisco (i.e. Watch_Dogs 2), I’d want even my mom to be able to have fun, drive a boat, helicopter, car… There has to be interesting people to meet, too, and that they come across well. We want to give them many methods: private detective, assassin, hacker, hunter… You can try out these professions along with their problems, and to become more powerful.”
Hascoët added the following about cutscenes:
“During these scenes, I’m not doing what I want to do, which is evolve in this world. I don’t want us to write one story, I want there to be tens of thousands of stories, that each character has one, and I can speak to them if I want to know that story.”
Whether or not Hascoët's opinion on the manner will result in tangible changes to Ubisoft's approach to storytelling remains to be seen. But given his position, it sure is possible.