After working at Vanguard Games for almost seven years, half of which was while it was still called W!Games, I am leaving the company. This week, I sent out the same type of e-mail I’ve been reading every time a former colleague announced his departure and I’m having mixed feelings about the upcoming goodbye gathering and speech, to be held on my last day of work at Vanguard.

I’m incredibly proud of the games we’ve been making together at Vanguard and I’ve worked with a lot of talented people there, some of which have become good friends. Being hired by what was then still W!Games was a turning point in my life, both professionally and personally, and it has been a great start of my career in the game development industry. I have to admit that I’ve been keeping an eye out for something new for quite some time, because I’ve always wanted to work abroad and also experience working at another studio. Starting and finishing Halo: Spartan Assault was very important to me and wrapping that up was a good moment for me to actually make a switch. So what am I going to do now?

As you might have read earlier on Twitter or Facebook, I will be moving to Sweden (Malmö to be precise) next month to join Ubisoft Massive as a game designer. I’ll become part of the amazing team that’s developing the much anticipated The Division, which in my opinion is one of the first truly next-gen titles.

After going through several steps in the application process, I was invited to Massive’s office for a personal interview and introduction to the team. I asked right away if it was possible to fly in a couple of days early, so I could spend some time getting to know my maybe future home town. My dad, who had to go through surgery the day after my interview and could use a little distraction, immediately proposed to go with me and spend some quality time together. So we planned a nice little trip for a couple of days to Malmö and Copenhagen (Denmark), which is right across the water and has the closest airport. Even if I didn’t get the job, I would at least have had a small vacation with my dad.

But after some altercations, I did get a job at Massive and I couldn’t be more excited! Everyone I spoke to at Ubisoft, from the worldwide design recruiters to the individual people at Massive, have been incredibly nice and professional. I can honestly say that working on The Division at Massive wasn’t “A” job I liked, it was “THE” job I just had to get. When I was E3 last year and everybody told me The Division was the game to check out, I never would have thought I would be working on that very title a year later. So now that I’m part of the Ubisoft family, the incredible adventure of moving to Sweden and helping to deliver The Division begins.