The workday shift inside Ubisoft’s Quebec network is being felt far beyond one office chair. In the latest change around assassin’s creed, Benoit Richer has left Ubisoft to co-found Servo Games, becoming game director at the new independent studio after years tied to Codename Hexe.
Why does this matter for Assassin’s Creed Hexe?
Richer is now the third major team member to leave the project, a sign that the upcoming title is moving through a period of visible instability. He had previously served as game director on Codename Hexe, which was announced in 2022 and remains in development.
His career path underscores how long he had been inside Ubisoft’s orbit. Richer began at Ubisoft Montréal as a level designer in 2001, later worked at Electronic Arts, spent six years at WB Games Montréal, and then returned to Ubisoft Montréal as a game director leading work on Codename Hexe. His move to Servo Games places him alongside Luc Tremblay, Alex Drouin, and Dany Marcoux, all named as co-founders of the Quebec-based studio.
The leadership churn is not isolated. In October, former franchise lead Marc-Alexis Côté left the project and later filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft alleging constructive dismissal after the Assassin’s Creed brand was transferred to Tencent-backed Vantage Studios. Earlier in February, Codename Hexe’s creative director Clint Hocking also left Ubisoft following the company’s restructuring plan. Jean Guesdon, head of content for the Assassin’s Creed brand, was then appointed as the new creative director for the project.
What is changing inside the project?
Beyond the departures, the project itself is being reshaped. About 50 developers working on Assassin’s Creed Hexe have been moved off the game and onto Ubisoft’s Interproject team, the internal home for staff not currently assigned to a project. The change came last week, just days after another unannounced project, Alterra, was canceled.
That staff move carries uncertainty for the people affected. Members of the Interproject team are required to secure a new Ubisoft project within three months or they could face redundancy. For developers, that can mean a sudden pause in the middle of a long production cycle and a period of waiting while budgets and staffing plans settle.
The game’s creative direction is also shifting. Jean Guesdon has decided to remove the “cat companion” feature from Assassin’s Creed Hexe. The project is now expected to take a more grounded approach to witchcraft, with the protagonist understanding the science of chemicals and using things such as smoke bombs in ways that can appear supernatural to ordinary citizens. In the context of assassin’s creed, that detail matters because it signals a tighter focus on tone rather than spectacle.
How does this affect release expectations?
At the time of writing, Assassin’s Creed Hexe is penciled in for a June 2027 release. But the recent cut of roughly 50 developers has fueled the possibility of a longer schedule, with some expectation that the game could be held back to holiday 2027 if the studio is trying to stay under budget.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has said the game is one of several being developed at Vantage Studios, alongside the Far Cry franchise. That makes Hexe part of a broader corporate reshuffle rather than a single isolated project change, even if the people inside the game’s own team are feeling the impact most directly.
For players, the headline may read like another routine personnel update. Inside the studio, it means a project that has already lost key leadership, reduced its team size and adjusted its creative direction is still trying to find its footing. In the world of assassin’s creed, that kind of shift can shape not only what the game becomes, but when it finally arrives.
Image alt: Assassin’s Creed and the changing path of Codename Hexe inside Ubisoft
