After 20 years at Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed boss departs right as Ubisoft launches a new Tencent-backed company now handling the franchise

Assassin's Creed franchise head Marc-Alexis Côté has left Ubisoft after 20 years at the company. The news comes as Ubisoft launches a new business venture, partially funded by Tencent, which will take over the Assassin's Creed series and other big franchises for the publisher.

"Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft," the company says in a statement provided to GamesRadar+.

"While we are saddened to see him go, we’re confident that our talented teams will carry forward the strong foundation he helped build," the statement continues. "We are deeply grateful for the impact Marc-Alexis has had over the years, particularly in shaping the Assassin’s Creed brand into what it is today. His leadership, creativity, and dedication have left a lasting mark on our teams and our players. We thank him sincerely for his many contributions and wish him continued success in all his future endeavors."

In an internal email to employees, republished in part by VGC, Ubisoft says that Côté was "offered several opportunities to be part of the leadership team shaping our strategic direction," but he "respectfully declined and decided to look to start his next chapter elsewhere.”

Assassin's Creed, alongside the Far Cry and Rainbow Six franchises, is now being handled by Vantage Studios, a new venture which reportedly began operations on October 1. It's unclear what shape the AC franchise will take under the new business structure, but early reports suggest that the idea is for there to be less centralized control, with individual development teams taking more direct control over their respective projects.

Côté started at Ubisoft as a software engineer in 2005, working on PSP adaptations of animated film adaptations like Open Season and Surf's Up. By 2008, he had become a lead level designer on the beloved Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and he took on more and more senior roles on the franchise over the years.

In 2022, Côté took on the role of vice president executive producer for Assassin's Creed, where he both led the direction of the franchise as a whole and served as its spokesperson. In the wake of the racist backlash against Assassin's Creed Shadows, he condemned "attacks driven by intolerance," especially the "personal attacks" against the dev team.

Ubisoft says it has creative control over the Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC, which is set in Saudi Arabia, was announced in Saudi Arabia, and which even employees fear might be funded by Saudi Arabia.