THQ advocate Votypka joins rival Ubisoft

David Votypka, the man who defended controversial working practices at THQ studio Kaos, has left the company to join rival Ubisoft.

Earlier in the year, Votypka loyally defended his studio’s intense workload policies as THQ put pressure on New York studio Kaos to finish the Homefront project.

Now Votypka has joined Ubisoft – a publisher whose rivalry with THQ has intensified in recent months.

In January, Develop interviewed Votypka while many of the studio’s 200-odd workers were worried about their livlihoods.

In response to the claims, Votypka said, “with the opening of the THQ Montreal studio, the goal has always been to find a way to utilise that studio in future Kaos projects”.

He added this was because the Montreal base was “a lower cost centre”.

“Seeing as New York is not the most inexpensive location to develop games, utilising Montreal one way or another is understandable,” Votypka claimed.

THQ this month closed Kaos Studios.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Votypka has been appointed creative director at Ubisoft Red Storm in North Carolina.

Travelling the other direction is Patrice Desilets, who quit Ubisoft Montreal to work at THQ’s new studio in the same city.

A legal dispute has broken out between both publishers over alleged poaching of staff.