Marc-Alexis Côté: "I didn't want to leave Assassin's Creed!"
Former franchise head clears the air
Last week, news that Marc-Alexis Côté, involved with the Assassin's Creed franchise for twenty years and leading many of its projects for much of that time, had left Ubisoft caused quite a stir.
According to the announcement released by the French-American company, and reported by IGN, "Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path outside of Ubisoft." Stated in these terms, the decision would seem to have been entirely in the developer's hands, but he appears to think differently.
Indeed, on his LinkedIn profile, Côté recently published these sentences: "Many of you have expressed surprise at the news that I might have chosen to leave Assassin's Creed after so many years, especially considering the passion I still have for the series. The truth is simple: I did not make this choice. Ubisoft decided to transfer the leadership of the Assassin's Creed franchise to someone closer to its new organizational structure. A different position was mentioned, but it did not offer the same vision, mandate, or continuity with the work I have been entrusted with in recent years."
The "different position" Côté refers to might be the one cited by VGC, according to which Ubisoft offered him a leadership role at Vantage Studio, the new team founded by Ubisoft in collaboration with Tencent, which will indeed centralize the Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises, but Marc-Alexis reportedly refused. The developer continues by specifying that he holds no resentment towards the company, but "to my past and present team, I also need to say this clearly: I did not walk away. I stayed in my position until Ubisoft asked me to step aside."
A few days prior, we reported a rumor that Ubisoft had canceled an Assassin's Creed franchise project due to themes related to the current socio-political situation: although the cancellation of an unannounced project is commonplace for many software houses, it cannot be ruled out that all these puzzle pieces may have contributed to forming a picture in which Ubisoft and Côté could no longer collaborate.
We will see what the future holds for the franchise and for Marc-Alexis...