16-year Assassin's Creed vet leaves to join Jade Raymond's Haven team

In a somewhat ironic twist of fate, Assassin's Creed art director Raphael Lacoste leaves Ubisoft to join the original creator of the AC franchise.

After 16 years with Ubisoft and helping shape eight mainline Assassin's Creed games, artist Raphael Lacoste is leaving the publisher to reunite with Jade Raymond. The two worked together on 2006's original Assassin's Creed game, and while Lacoste stayed at Ubisoft, Raymond pursued other ventures. Now the two are converging at Raymond's new Haven studios--a Montreal-based independent studio that's making a new game for PlayStation.

"It is not without emotions I have to tell you that after 8 assassins, 16 years at Ubisoft I have decided to set sails on new adventures and challenges," Lacoste said on Twitter.

Eight hours later, Lacoste announced his new role. "I'm excited to announce that I've joined Haven Studios as Art Director! One of the best experiences of my career was creating Assassin's Creed 1. Being more hands-on with concept art & working with many of the same core team to build a new original IP is inspiring & exciting," he said.

Haven has yet to announce their new project, but we do know it's a brand new IP exclusively for the PlayStation brand.