The Division director jumps ship to IO Interactive

Ryan Barnard, game director for The Division at Ubisoft’s Massive studio, has joined Hitman developer IO Interactive.

Barnard has been at Massive since 2011, when he served as associate creative director, before becoming game director in 2013 to work on Ubisoft’s MMO shooter.

He previously worked at Crysis creator Crytek as senior melee combat systems designer and, before that, EA Mythic and Sony Online Entertainment as a designer on games such as Warhammer Online and EverQuest II.

At IO Interactive, Barnard will serve in the newly-created position of gameplay director, heading up three of the outlet’s core teams: gameplay, online and world.

The outlet is now home to around 170 developers, the majority of whom are said to be working on Hitman’s upcoming episodic content.

“Ryan’s contributions to game design over the years show he’s the ideal person to spearhead the coming efforts,” said IO parent Square Enix in a statement.

"We are very happy to add his talent to the pool of great people working at IO.”