Ubisoft has reportedly canceled a multiplayer, cooperative Assassin’s Creed title that has been in improvement at French studio Ubisoft Annecy.
This comes from a report by French publication Origami, which IGN has independently translated. In response to the report, the challenge was codenamed “AC League”, was initially conceived as a DLC for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and would have probably taken place in the identical feudal Japan period. The DLC would have concerned 4 assassins becoming a member of forces to tackle a collection of scripted missions with as much as 4 gamers that may have finally concluded the story instructed within the recreation’s (canceled) Season Move. You’ll have already heard of AC League in the event you pay shut consideration to Assassin’s Creed gossip, because it was previously rumored last year in a report from Insider Gaming.
The challenge, Origami stories, was apparently pretty formidable and was supposed to function a baseline for future multiplayer options all through the collection, corresponding to a return to a hybrid solo/multiplayer playstyle as existed in Assassin’s Creed Unity or Black Flag (a remake of which has been rumored for a while now). Nonetheless, because the AC League challenge progressed, administrators at Ubisoft Annecy reportedly started to query whether or not it made sense to connect League to Shadows, as they apprehensive it will take too lengthy to make, and got here up with a unique plan that turned it right into a small, standalone title borrowing items of the Assassin’s Creed: Shadows open world. Improvement on this progressed with an supposed invite-only alpha deliberate for Might of 2026.
Sadly, AC League was allegedly simply the newest sufferer of the continued upheaval at Ubisoft. For a number of months now, the corporate has been present process a large restructure alongside main cost-cutting measures, canceling quite a few initiatives, closing studios, and reorganizing its inventive homes. It was to this restructuring that AC League fell sufferer, with management at Ubisoft Annecy being knowledgeable simply final week that AC League was being canceled.
Nonetheless, there’s nonetheless a sliver of hope for the challenge, Origami stories. Apparently, a handful of Annecy staff have been chosen to switch the technical developments the staff made again into the corporate’s proprietary Anvil engine, with the aim of finally making it simpler so as to add replayable multiplayer modes to future Assassin’s Creed titles that may be inexpensive to develop. Sadly, that leaves greater than 1 / 4 of the 270 people working at Annecy and not using a challenge for the time being, leaving loads of lingering anxiousness that layoffs could also be coming subsequent.
IGN has reached out to Ubisoft for remark.
Ubisoft’s quarterly earnings might be reported subsequent week, and all eyes are on the corporate to see if it could possibly pull itself collectively amid some drastic monetary occasions. Upon final reporting, the corporate had thrown out its earlier fiscal 12 months steerage for brand new, considerably diminished monetary expectations, reflective of the truth that the corporate simply closed two tales, laid off loads of staff, and canceled six initiatives. It is also handed off its three greatest franchises to Vantage Studios, a newly-created enterprise entity owned by Ubisoft however with a 25% stake from Tencent to assist hold the lights on.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Received a narrative tip? Ship it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Article translation courtesy of Blythe Dujardin.