Assassin's Creed Hexe loses 50 developers shortly after losing two directors in two months

Ubisoft's next mainline Assassin's Creed game, codenamed "Hexe," has been in the news cycle lately. It has been a bit of a tumultuous time for the game's development team, as it has now lost two directors in as many months. Creative director Clint Hocking left the team in February, and more recently, game director Benoit Richer also left the Hexe project to co-found an indie studio.

It seems like the ship is not out of troubled waters yet, as we have more bad news to report from the Hexe development circle. According to a report by Insider Gaming (citing leaker @xj0nathan), the game's new creative director, Jean Guesdon, has removed 50 developers from the Assassin's Creed Hexe team. These developers are reported to have been moved to Ubisoft's Interproject team, which hosts Ubisoft workers when they have no projects assigned to them.

This change can significantly impact the game's development cycle and the eventual launch date. Assassin's Creed Hexe was reportedly initially slated for a 2026 launch, but recent events and the lack of information about the game give us no confidence that Ubisoft will be able to hit that target. It seems increasingly clear that the game's launch will be pushed deep into 2027, if not later, which will throw off Ubisoft's announced roadmap.

The report also claims that the move to cut the 50 developers from the team was a cost-cutting measure. Ubisoft responded to the claim in a statement to Rock Paper Shotgun, saying that moving members across teams was standard procedure. Of course, Ubisoft's response is about what you would expect from a huge game publisher that just laid off a bunch of developers.

Interestingly, there is another little tidbit in the original report that further adds to the drama. Apparently, the game's new creative director, Jean Guesdon, has also been making core gameplay tweaks since taking over. It is reported that the player's cat companion will be reworked, with Ubisoft taking a "more grounded approach" on that matter. So not only is Assassin's Creed Hexe in developmental turmoil and likely delayed, it may not even be the game Ubisoft initially promised us.

Apart from that, not much else is known currently about the gameplay of Assassin's Creed Hexe. We know that it is set in the latter stages of the Holy Roman Empire, and is supposed to involve elements of witchcraft. However, with the earlier rumor about the cat companion being reworked, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more "ambitious" aspects of the game are dialed back in the final release.