The Assassin’s Creed series just lost its long-time head, but apparently it wasn’t his own decision to leave the franchise.
Earlier this week, it was announced that Marc-Alexis Côté, the former vice president executive producer of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, had departed Ubisoft, just weeks after the official opening of Vantage Studios, the new joint studio with Tencent.
In an official comment, Ubisoft stated that Côté had “chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere,” and it raised questions about why he would leave after spending so long with the series.
However, Côté has now taken to LinkedIn (via VGC) to explain his departure from the position, and to clarify that it was not his decision to make.
“I Did Not Make That Choice”
Côté explains in the post that, among those reaching out to wish him well after departing Ubisoft, many wondered why he would choose to leave the Assassin’s Creed series, considering his “passion” for it.
In response to them, he says, “The truth is simple: I did not make that choice.”
Apparently, it was Ubisoft’s decision to shift the leadership of the Assassin’s Creed series to “someone closer to its new organizational structure.”
According to both Côté himself and Vantage Studios co-CEO Christophe Derennes, he was offered another position, but it didn’t have “the same scope, mandate, or continuity” with his previous work on the franchise, so he declined the offer.
Derennes said in an internal email to employees that Côté had his own “expectations and priorities” regarding Vantage Studios and its future.
Côté clarifies that he does not resent Ubisoft for their decision, considering he’s spent his entire professional life with them, ever since joining as a level designer on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood in 2005.
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. – Marc-Alexis Côté
Côté’s departure from the Assassin’s Creed franchise comes after not just the official formation of Vantage Studios, but also after it came out that Ubisoft had a game in the series set in the wake of the American Civil War that would put players in the shoes of a formerly enslaved black man fighting the emerging Ku Klux Klan.
The game was cancelled due to the concept being deemed “too political,” especially in the wake of the controversy over the inclusion of the black samurai Yasuke as a playable character in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
