In 2025, the head of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and a 20 year veteran of Ubisoft, Marc-Alexis Côté, abruptly left the publisher following the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Three months ago he broke his silence to claim that he didn’t leave voluntarily but was pushed out of the company. Now he’s suing Ubisoft for nearly $1 million over what he alleges was a “constructive dismissal” after being demoted from leading the publisher’s biggest franchise.
Radio-Canada reports that the lawsuit was recently filed in the Superior Court of Quebec and claims $1.3 million Canadian dollars in damages, or roughly $935,000. In it, Côté details the events leading up to his departure from the company, including a meeting in the summer of 2025 when it apparently became clear that he would not longer remain in charge of Assassin’s Creed, the franchise he had led sine a 2022 strategy reboot outlined its ambitious future.
Last year, Ubisoft launched a subsidiary called Vantage Studios backed by $1.25 billion in funding from Tencent that would house the publisher’s most profitable franchises: Rainbow Six Siege, Far Cry, and Assassin’s Creed. It’s led by North American studios head Christophe Derennes and CEO Yves Guillemot’s son, Charlie Guillemot. Prior to the move, Côté reported directly to Yves Guillemot.
An Assassin’s Creed veteran allegedly demoted
But under this new model, Ubisoft was looking to hire a Head of Franchise that would oversee all of its major IP, including Assassin’s Creed, effectively demoting Côté, according to his lawsuit. The new position would also only be located in France, meaning Côté wouldn’t be eligible unless he was willing to relocate his life across the Atlantic.
The veteran developer was reportedly offered a new position of franchise production head or an ambiguous role leading a “Creative House” overseeing a separate, lesser franchise within the company’s portfolio. When he declined and requested his severance for effectively losing his position in October, he alleges that Ubisoft took the surprise step of both internally and publicly announcing his “voluntary” departure the next day.
“The past 24 hours have been deeply emotional,” he wrote on LinkedIn at the time. “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.” Côté is now asking the Quebec court not only for damages and his severance, but to be released from a non-compete clause that limits the roles he can take elsewhere in the video game industry.
Longer dev cycles, fewer games
The lawsuit comes on the eve of Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ one-year anniversary, the last game in the franchise to ship with Côté, who has been working on the historical action series since 2010’s Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, at the helm. That game was originally supposed to come out in 2024 but was delayed to provide additional development time after already marking the longest lull ever between new releases in the series.
“We’re also shifting our development model to make it more sustainable for our teams, as previously we used to average about three years for each development cycle on Assassin’s Creed,” Côté announced back in 2022. “So we’re moving to longer dev cycles to make them more sustainable from a human and technological point of view, so that we can truly build on the shoulders of one another and then support our games for a longer period of time.”
He said the franchise would evolve along two separate tracks with Shadows representing the continued evolution of the open-world RPG formula that began with Assassin’s Creed Origin and the next entry, Assassin’s Creed Hexe directed by Clint Hocking, taking an approach that would feel “fresh and different.” Years later, however, some projects like the multiplayer spin-off Invictus and the mobile “AAA” game Jade remain MIA. A remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, meanwhile, is rumored to be launching in the next few months.
Ubisoft and Côté did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
