It seems that Marc-Alexis Côté, the Ubisoft veteran and strategic leader of the Assassin’s Creed franchise who was recently reported to have departed the company, was actually asked to step down by Ubisoft. In a recent Linkedin post, the former Assassin’s Creed boss has wrote in detail that he didn’t really walk away from the series after serving as lead developer for over two decades but it’s actually Ubisoft who made that call. In his own words, he didn’t leave the company by his own choice or by his own will either:
“Many of you have expressed surprise that I would choose to leave Assassin’s Creed after so many years, especially given the passion I still hold for it.
The truth is simple: I did not make that 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 carry the same scope, mandate, or continuity with the work I had been entrusted with in recent years.”
“But I also owe it to my teams, past and present, to say this plainly:
I did not walk away.
I stayed at my post until Ubisoft asked me to step aside.”
His account of the entire situation aligns with the original report of him being offered a new position at Vantage Studios, after the recent merging between Ubisoft and Tencent but it was not what he was expecting based on his long tenure at the helm of the Assassin’s Creed series for around two decades. And probably that’s why he was asked to step down from the company as the new direction Ubisoft wants to take the franchise into has no place for the kind of position he had worked from earlier.
While it’s not really uncommon for changes in lead direction for huge franchises like Assassin’s Creed, it seems the decision was a result of some internal friction in the company rather than an amicable departure.
