Ubisoft Reportedly Cancels Rumored Cooperative Multiplayer Assassin's Creed Game

Ubisoft has reportedly canceled a multiplayer, cooperative Assassin's Creed rubric that has been successful improvement astatine French workplace Ubisoft Annecy.

This comes from a study by French work Origami, which IGN has independently translated. According to the report, the task was codenamed "AC League", was primitively conceived arsenic a DLC for Assassin's Creed Shadows, and would person perchance taken spot successful the aforesaid feudal Japan era. The DLC would person progressive 4 assassins joining forces to instrumentality connected a bid of scripted missions with up to 4 players that would person yet concluded the communicative told successful the game's (canceled) Season Pass. You whitethorn person already heard of AC League if you wage adjacent attraction to Assassin's Creed gossip, arsenic it was antecedently rumored past twelvemonth successful a study from Insider Gaming.

The project, Origami reports, was seemingly reasonably ambitious and was intended to service arsenic a baseline for aboriginal multiplayer features passim the series, specified arsenic a instrumentality to a hybrid solo/multiplayer playstyle arsenic existed successful Assassin's Creed Unity oregon Black Flag (a remake of which has been rumored for immoderate clip now). However, arsenic the AC League task progressed, directors astatine Ubisoft Annecy reportedly began to question whether it made consciousness to connect League to Shadows, arsenic they disquieted it would instrumentality excessively agelong to make, and came up with a antithetic program that turned it into a small, standalone rubric borrowing pieces of the Assassin's Creed: Shadows unfastened world. Development connected this progressed with an intended invite-only alpha planned for May of 2026.

Unfortunately, AC League was allegedly conscionable the latest unfortunate of the ongoing upheaval astatine Ubisoft. For respective months now, the institution has been undergoing a monolithic restructure alongside large cost-cutting measures, canceling galore projects, closing studios, and reorganizing its originative houses. It was to this restructuring that AC League fell victim, with enactment astatine Ubisoft Annecy being informed conscionable past week that AC League was being canceled.

However, determination is inactive a sliver of anticipation for the project, Origami reports. Apparently, a fistful of Annecy employees person been selected to transportation the method advancements the squad made backmost into the company's proprietary Anvil engine, with the extremity of yet making it easier to adhd replayable multiplayer modes to aboriginal Assassin's Creed titles that would beryllium little costly to develop. Unfortunately, that leaves much than a 4th of the 270 individuals moving astatine Annecy without a task astatine the moment, leaving a batch of lingering anxiousness that layoffs whitethorn beryllium coming next.

IGN has reached retired to Ubisoft for comment.

Ubisoft's quarterly net volition beryllium reported adjacent week, and each eyes are connected the institution to spot if it tin propulsion itself unneurotic amid immoderate drastic fiscal times. Upon past reporting, the institution had thrown retired its erstwhile fiscal twelvemonth guidance for new, importantly reduced fiscal expectations, reflective of the information that the institution conscionable closed 2 stories, laid disconnected a batch of employees, and canceled six projects. It's besides handed disconnected its 3 biggest franchises to Vantage Studios, a newly-created concern entity owned by Ubisoft but with a 25% involvement from Tencent to assistance support the lights on.

Rebekah Valentine is simply a elder newsman for IGN. Got a communicative tip? Send it to [email protected].

Article translation courtesy of Blythe Dujardin.