Splinter Cell: Blacklist will have some kind of "user content"

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is unlikely to come with a level editor or mod tools, but it will include some way for gamers to leave their mark on the game - and on each other.

The news comes out of an interview with Jade Raymond, head of Ubisoft Toronto and one of the key creatives behind the original Assassin's Creed. Speaking with Gamasutra, Raymond said larger budgets and flashier content isn't going to advance gaming significantly.

"It's got to stop. To give you an overly-simplified answer, I do think games and franchises need to include more user content. And by user content, I don't mean that all of a sudden, every game is going to have a level builder, because not everyone wants to sit down and build a level. That's too complicated," she said.

"But by user content, you can think of Dark Souls, and how your game is affected by other people who are playing. In what ways can the user impact the experience?

"I think that's what's going to drive hits, but also at the extreme end, it's going to enable us to continue to create interesting content without always having such huge costs associated with it. To me, that's the key. What I think people want is their own custom experience, in anything."

As another example, Raymond pointed at Team Fortress 2's user-generated content, and said that Ubisoft Toronto's upcoming Splinter Cell: Blacklist contains user-generated content of some kind.

"If we do it intelligently, we could have a lot more content with what other people are creating. They're making [the game] more interesting for each other, and also gratifying themselves," she said.

"It's nice to hear a game developer's idea of a grand vision, but I honestly don't think it's about our creative vision so much. It's about the gamer's vision. It has to be more about how I'm allowing this to become the player's brand."

Splinter Cell: Blacklist is due in August, on PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360.

Thanks, GameInformer.