The Division Director Leaves Ubisoft, Joins Square Enix

The Division game director Ryan Barnard has left Ubisoft and joined Square Enix. Barnard's LinkedIn page shows that he exited Ubisoft at the end of February and started at Hitman developer IO Interactive in March where he now works as a gameplay director.

According to MCV, this is a newly created role and will see Barnard overseeing IO's three core units: gameplay, online, and world.

"Ryan's contributions to game design over the years show he's the ideal person to spearhead the coming efforts," Square Enix, which owns IO, said in a statement. "We are very happy to add his talent to the pool of great people working at IO."

Barnard got his start in the industry at Sony Online Entertainment and also held positions at defunct EA studio EA Mythic and later Crytek. He joined Ubisoft Massive in September 2011 as an associate creative director before moving up to overall game director in February 2013.

The Division launched on March 8 and set 24-hour Ubisoft sales records. It went on to make $330 million in its first five days, besting Destiny to set a new record for a new IP launch, according to Ubisoft.

In other news about The Division, someone has now reached the game's Dark Zone level cap.