Assassin's Creed Hexe may be in troubled waters after losing its second director in two months

Assassin's Creed Hexe has been in the works since late 2022 as part of the Assassin's Creed Infinity project. Ubisoft announced the game as the next mainline installment in the series after Assassin's Creed Shadows, but very little information has been coming out about the game since its announcement. However, we have a new development that might explain the apparent lack of information about the title.

According to a LinkedIn post, the game director for Assassin's Creed Hexe, Benoit Richer, is leaving the project. He is departing to cofound an indie studio of "industry veterans" and is seemingly no longer attached to Hexe or Ubisoft in any way moving forward. What's interesting is that this is the second high-profile departure from the Assassin's Creed Hexe team within two months.

Clint Hocking, the creative director for Hexe, left the development team during a tumultuous time at Ubisoft. He was replaced by Jean Guesdon, who is known for his work directing both Assassin's Creed Black Flag and Origins. Benoit Richer was previously the director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and also directed Batman: Arkham Origins before joining Ubisoft in 2017.

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Two high-profile departures from the same team within two months raise a red flag. The Assassin's Creed franchise, although beloved, has not exactly been on a stellar run ever since introducing RPG elements with Origins. Odyssey and Valhalla were good games, but they never really captured the fanbase like the Creed games of the past. Mirage was a callback to the old style, and AC Shadows has received mixed reviews, making Hexe all the more important for the franchise's continuation.

Information about Assassin's Creed Hexe has been hard to come by. We know that it takes place in the latter stages of the Holy Roman Empire, and may involve novel elements such as witchcraft and wizardry. It is supposed to launch in 2027, but the recent departures do not give us much hope that Ubisoft will hit that timeline. In the meantime, I will be exploring the high seas in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.