In 2025 Marc-Alexis Côté, the head of Assassin’s Creed franchise and a 20-year veteran of Ubisoft, abruptly left the publisher following the launch of Shadows of Assassin’s Creed. Three months ago, he broke his silence to claim that he did not leave the company voluntarily, but was forced out of the company. He’s now suing Ubisoft for nearly $1 million for what he says was a “constructive dismissal” after he was demoted from running the publisher’s biggest franchise.
Radio-Canada reports that the lawsuit was recently filed in the Superior Court of Quebec and seeks 1.3 million Canadian dollars in damages, or approximately $935,000. In it, Côté details the events that led to his departure from the company, including a meeting in the summer of 2025 where it apparently became clear that he would no longer remain at the helm of the company. Assassin’s Creedthe franchise he had always led a restart of the strategy for 2022 outlined its ambitious future.
Last year, Ubisoft launched a subsidiary called Vantage Studios backed by $1.25 billion in funding from Tencent that would host the publisher’s most profitable franchises: Rainbow Six Headquarters, Far from itAnd Assassin’s Creed. It is led by Christophe Derennes, director of North American studios, and the son of CEO Yves Guillemot, Charlie Guillemot. Before this move, Côté reported directly to Yves Guillemot.
A Assassin’s Creed a veteran would have been demoted But under this new model, Ubisoft was looking to hire a franchise manager who would oversee all of its major intellectual properties, including Assassin’s Creedeffectively demoting Côté, according to his lawsuit. The new position would also only be located in France, meaning Côté would only be eligible if he was willing to move across the Atlantic.
The veteran developer was reportedly offered a new position as head of franchise production or an ambiguous role heading a “Creative House” overseeing a separate, lesser franchise within the company’s portfolio. When he refused and demanded his severance for effectively losing his position in October, he alleges that Ubisoft made the surprise decision to both internally and publicly announcing his “voluntary” departure the next day.
“The last 24 hours have been deeply emotional,” he said. wrote on LinkedIn at the time. “Many of you have expressed surprise that I chose to leave Assassin’s Creed after so many years, especially given the passion I still have for it. The truth is simple: I did not make this choice. Côté is now asking the Quebec court not only for damages and his compensation, but also to be released from a non-competition clause that limits the roles he can assume elsewhere in the video game industry.
Longer development cycles, fewer games The trial takes place the day before Shadows of Assassin’s Creed’ first anniversary, the last game in the franchise to ship with Côté, who has worked on the historical action series since the 2010s. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhoodat the helm. This game was originally supposed to release in 2024, but was delayed to provide additional development time after already marking the longest lull ever between new releases in the series.
“We are also changing 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,” Side announcement in 2022. “So we’re moving to longer development cycles to make them more sustainable from a human and technological perspective, so that we can truly build on each other and then support our games for a longer period of time.”
He said the franchise would evolve along two distinct paths, with Shadows representing the continued evolution of the open-world RPG formula that began with Assassin’s Creed Origins and the following entry, Assassin’s Creed Hex directed by Clint Hocking, taking an approach that would seem “fresh and different.” Years later, however, some projects like the multiplayer spin-off Invictus and the mobile game “AAA” Jade Stay MIA. A remake of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flagmeanwhile, should be launched in the coming months.
Ubisoft and Côté did not immediately respond to requests for comment.