Watch Dogs creator joins NetEase Montreal

Watch Dogs creator Jonathan Morin has joined NetEase Games.

Morin – who will “help lead NetEase Games Montreal to create a new IP, powering NetEase’s mission to become one of the biggest video game publishers in the world” – brings 24 years of “AAA” experience after having “played a key role in shaping the critically acclaimed Watch Dogs franchise at Ubisoft and vastly contributed to the Far Cry series”.

NetEase stopped short of revealing what new project Morin will be working on but says he joins other “major talent hires” including some from Quantic Dream, Jackalope, and Nagoshi Studio.

“I am excited to announce my new adventure as Creative Director at NetEase Games Montreal,” Morin said. “I am privileged to join a passionate and talented new team to create our own IP. This is the beginning of something special for me and I cannot wait to say more…”

It follows news that Xbox veteran and Halo Infinite head of design Jerry Hook will head up new “AAA” studio Jar of Sparks, a first-party developer for Chinese publisher NetEase that will focus on creating the “next generation of narrative-driven action games”.

Earlier this week, we discovered that Destiny developer Bungie had secured seven new patent filings, predominantly all linked to virtual controls on touch-enabled devices, lending further credence to reports earlier this year that it had a Destiny mobile game in the works.

It’s thought NetEase was collaborating with Bungie to bring a completely new instalment in the Destiny series to mobile – a project said to have already been in development for several years.