An Assassin's Creed veteran who directed Valhalla and served as lead designer on the OG Black Flag and more has returned to Ubisoft as the series' game director.
Eric Baptizat spent almost 16 full years at Ubisoft between 2005 and 2021, during which time he was credited with lead roles on the two aforementioned games, as well as Assassin's Creed: Origins and Unity, before moving to EA's Motive Studio to direct Battlefield 6 and the Dead Space remake. Now, as announced by the Assassin's Creed series' head of content Jean Guesdon, Baptizat is back.
"After an incredible professional journey, including 16 years at Ubisoft and then leading the critically acclaimed Dead Space remake at EA Motive, Eric Baptizat is coming back to the Assassin's Creed family as our new Game Director for the brand," Guesdon announces in a new LinkedIn post.
"Éric needs no introduction in this universe. 16 years at Ubisoft, key contributions to Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla as Game Director, his passion for gameplay craft and his deep connection to this franchise speak for themselves," he continues. "Seeing someone with his expertise, his rigor, and his collaborative spirit step into this role fills me with confidence and honestly, a lot of excitement, for what's ahead for the brand."
Baptizat isn't the first veteran Ubisoft has rehired like this – ironically, the same happened with Guesdon himself. He spent 17 years at the company between 2005 and 2023 before departing, and was later appointed head of content this February, also taking over as creative director on Assassin's Creed Hexe following the departure of Clint Hocking (in what was, in fact, his second time leaving the company).
Things haven't exactly been smooth sailing at Ubisoft recently. At the start of the year, it was announced that the company was undergoing a "major reset," which led to six games being canceled. This same reset saw production split into different "creative houses" tasked with the development of different series – Vantage Studios, for example, includes the likes of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. That's the same one that was backed by Tencent.
Clearly, it's in Ubisoft's interest to smooth things out – Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has had a very strong start, but there are a bunch of other upcoming Assassin's Creed games on the horizon, including Assassin's Creed Hexe, Jade, and Invictus. Hopefully, Baptizat will be able to help get these out the door successfully to keep things moving in the right direction.
