Which is fair enough really, but a strange statement considering the subject matter of The Division - which presents an alternate version of our own world where a virus has cause widespread havok and all but destroyed society. With a group of elite government agents called The Division attempt to clean things up. And the fact that it's based on or part of the Tom Clancy universe means that at the very least the subject matter is political-by-association.

But, for Ubisoft Massive COO Alf Condelius, taking an overt political stance or presenting a message, no matter how subtle, that could translate to our own political climate - is bad for business.

"It's a balance because we cannot be openly political in our games," he said. "So for example in The Division, it's a dystopian future and there's a lot of interpretations that it's something that we see the current society moving towards, but it's not - it's a fantasy. It's a universe and a world that we created for people to explore how to be a good person in a slowly decaying world. But people like to put politics into that, and we back away from those interpretations as much as we can because we don't want to take a stance in current politics."

"It's also bad for business, unfortunately, if you want the honest truth... but it is interesting and it is a discussion that we have, and it's an ongoing discussion we have with our users, of course, because people want to put an interpretation into the universe that we create and they want to see their own reality in the fantasies that we give them, and the stories that the games are."

Again it's a position that makes sense, especially for what is at it's core a shooter with RPG elements that can be played for hours online. Any overt statement commenting on real-world politics would feel out of place, but based on the above statement Ubisoft Massive are being careful to also not include commentary The Division's in-game politics - which is overly cautious.

But, that all changes when it comes to the studio's Avatar project based on the 2009 James Cameron film - which is all about saving the environment. And becoming a giant blue being and using your hair to connect to other hair. On that front, Alf Condelius notes, "It's a political statement of course, and we think that it's important."

Except when it comes to non-environmental issues.

Source.