Assassin's Creed Valhalla narrative director leaves Ubisoft on "a new adventure"

Assassin's Creed Valhalla
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The narrative director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, whose lead writing credits stretch back to Assassin's Creed: Revelations, has left Ubisoft.

Darby McDevitt announced his departure from Ubisoft Montreal on his personal Twitter account, thanking fans for joining him in more than a decade of Assassin adventures. Between Revelations and Valhalla, McDevitt was also the lead scriptwriter for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, and contributed to the writing, research and conception of Assassin's Creed Origins. On top of that, he was lead scriptwriter for Assassin's Creed: Embers, the short film which served as a final farewell to renaissance hero Ezio Auditore.

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"After 10 years, Darby McDevitt decided to leave Ubisoft to pursue a new adventure," an Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement given to Eurogamer. "Over the years he's inspired us with his talent for narrative, crafting incredible stories and bringing memorable characters to life. We thank him for all of his contributions and wish him well!"

McDevitt gave no indication of where his "new adventure" will take him; we do know that Amazon Games announced a new studio in Montreal with a bunch of ex-Rainbow Six Siege developers earlier this week, but that could just be a coincidence. With all those credits on many of the most-loved Assassin's Creed stories in recent memory, he'd be a welcome addition to most any major developer - assuming McDevitt's staying in the AAA games space at all.

Meanwhile, Ubisoft is keeping busy with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, putting out a new update that fixes some troublesome Ostara Festival crashes. 

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.