Earlier this week, Ubisoft revealed three new leaders for Assassin’s Creed. One of those will now be taking over as creative director for Assassin’s Creed Hexe as its existing lead, Clint Hocking, departs the company after a cumulative 20 years working on Ubisoft games.
As first reported by VGC, staff were informed about Hocking’s departure during an internal meeting with the new Assassin’s Creed leadership team just this week. “We sincerely thank [Clint] for his vision, creative contributions, and dedication over the years, and we wish him the very best in his next chapter,” a spokesperson for Ubisoft said. “Development on Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe continues with a seasoned team.”
Hocking first joined the French publisher in 2001 to lead projects like Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Far Cry 2. He eventually left for brief stints at LucasArts, Valve, and Amazon Games before returning in 2015 and later directing Watch Dogs Legion. Like Far Cry 2, it was an ambitious, systems-driven sandbox where players swapped between procedurally generated characters on the streets of London to fight a fascist surveillance state. It was mechanically innovative but sales disappointed.
Hocking has been on Hexe, the next blockbuster Assassin’s Creed game coming in the pipeline with a reported release date goal of 2027. “After over a year of working in the darkness, happy to announce I’m working as the Creative Director on Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe, with an amazing team in Montreal,” he posted back in 2022.
Hexe takes place in the “latter stages of the Holy Roman Empire,” involves witch trials, and would seemingly take on a much more survival horror-infused tone than other games in the series. We’ll see if that’s still the case now that, as VGC reports, Assassin’s Creed veteran Jean Guesdon, a director on Black Flag and Origins, is taking over.