Ubisoft enlists former Amazon Games leader to oversee its Tom Clancy studio.

      Ubisoft has appointed Christoph Hartmann, who was recently vice president of Amazon Games, to lead the division overseeing its Tom Clancy properties. He will serve as the general manager of Creative House 2, which focuses on The Division, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell, according to Ubisoft’s official announcement.

      This appointment comes at a sensitive time for Ubisoft, a company that tragically lost co-founder Claude Guillemot in a plane crash last year and has since been reorganizing around three Creative Houses.

      Creative House 2 also includes March of Giants, a multiplayer battle arena game that Ubisoft acquired in December, providing Hartmann with a portfolio that combines established shooter franchises and a new live-service venture.

      The broader gaming industry has been undergoing similar changes over the past year, with publishers reworking divisions and sometimes negotiating studio spin-offs instead of closing them entirely.

      Ubisoft’s solution has been to divide its portfolio into semi-autonomous Creative Houses, each led by a general manager responsible for a specific set of franchises, rather than managing the entire company as a single entity.

      Hartmann’s background reads like a highlight reel from the past twenty years of the publishing world. He dedicated two decades to Take-Two Interactive, where he co-founded 2K Games and was its president until 2017, overseeing franchises such as Borderlands, BioShock, Civilization, NBA 2K, and XCOM.

      He joined Amazon Games in 2018 as vice president, overseeing the studios responsible for New World and the North American release of Lost Ark. In 2023, he secured the rights from Embracer Group to develop a Lord of the Rings MMO, though the project's status under Ubisoft remains uncertain.

      Chief executive Yves Guillemot, one of the five Guillemot brothers who co-founded the company in 1986, described the hire as a move focused on franchise development rather than a turnaround initiative.

      “Christoph has an exceptional track record of building strong creative teams and merging top development and publishing expertise to create enduring franchises,” stated Yves Guillemot, co-founder and CEO of Ubisoft.

      Hartmann’s own statement expressed more sentiment than strategy, emphasizing the shared experiences in gaming. “Some of the strongest memories in games come from overcoming challenges together—the missions you barely survive, the unexpected comebacks, the moments when a team truly connects,” he remarked.

      “The skilled teams at March of Giants, Massive, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Paris, and Ubisoft Toronto are crafting game worlds filled with those types of experiences for millions of dedicated players. With Creative House 2, our aim is to honor their passion, carefully listen to what they love, and create intense, high-quality experiences that keep them returning.”

      The restructuring that formed Creative House 2 results from a broader, costlier move. Ubisoft separated its three largest franchises, Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six, into a separate subsidiary called Vantage Studios, in which Tencent invested €1.16 billion in a deal finalized last November.

      This left the Tom Clancy shooters and other titles organized into the remaining Creative Houses, one of which is Hartmann’s.

      Ubisoft’s wider restructuring has also been challenging, and tensions between publishers and studios have been evident across the industry, including in the recent bonus dispute that led to the departure of Krafton’s chief executive from Unknown Worlds.

      What Hartmann inherits, aside from the organizational structure, are franchises with varied fortunes. The Division and Ghost Recon have not released a major new main entry in years, while Splinter Cell has remained inactive as a AAA series since a remake began development.

      This context presents the practical challenges for a general manager whose past experiences at 2K and Amazon focus more on publishing and franchise management than on recoveries. Ubisoft has not announced when Hartmann will begin or whether any of Creative House 2’s franchises have attached release dates.

      The company's upcoming financial update is expected to provide the first insights into the performance of the new structure and its recent hire.