Assassin’s Creed Boss Says “Ubisoft Asked Me To Step Aside”

The former creative lead of the Assassin’s Creed series wants to clarify that it wasn’t his choice to step away from the franchise. Earlier this week, Marc-Alexis Côté left Ubisoft^[1] after roughly 20 years with the company–including the last three as vice president and executive producer of Assassin’s Creed.

On LinkedIn^[2], Côté stated that he’s still passionate about Assassin’s Creed, and he didn’t “make that choice” to leave the series. “I did not walk away. I stayed at my post until Ubisoft asked me to step aside,” said Côté, who prefaced this by saying he’s not resentful toward Ubisoft.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft announced that a new subsidiary named Vantage Studios will oversee the Assassin’s Creed franchise^[7], along with Rainbow Six and Far Cry. With this reorganization, Côté noted that Ubisoft “decided to transfer the leadership of the Assassin’s Creed franchise.” As previously reported, a “different position was mentioned” to Côté, but he said “it did not carry the same scope, mandate, or continuity” of what he was doing over the past few years.

Côté helped launch the latest game in the series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows^[8], earlier this year on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. While still unofficial, mounting evidence and leaks point to Assassin’s Creed Shadows heading to Switch 2 in December^[9]. It was also reported earlier this month that Ubisoft canceled an Assassin’s Creed game that was set during the American Civil War^[10] because the company was worried it was too controversial.