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Ubisoft is in upheaval, with a massive restructure underway and the specter of layoffs looming. Amid all that, another Assassin's Creed veteran has announced his departure from the company: Luc Couture, a level designer who'd been with the historical open-world series from the very beginning, is moving on to a new project.
"Today was my last day at Ubisoft Montreal," Couture announced in a LinkedIn post (spotted by Insider Gaming) on February 3. He explains that "I was recently in need for some change. So that's why I will soon pivot to tackling new challenges as part of a smaller studio with other veterans. Times are exciting."
Couture had been at Ubisoft for over 24 years, first working as a level designer on the PS2-era Prince of Persia trilogy: The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, and The Two Thrones. He moved up to senior level designer on the first Assassin's Creed game in 2005, and would serve in senior level and world design positions through much of the series.
He also contributed to projects like Far Cry 4 and the Watch Dogs games, and most recently was world level design director on the forthcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe. Suffice to say, his stamp on Ubisoft's biggest open-world games has been far reaching.
Ubisoft has well over 17,000 employees (by the last public count in 2025), and it's tough to measure the impact of any one departure on the publisher as a whole. But with veteran developers departing and others – like longtime level designer David Michaud-Cromp or veteran designer and director turned franchise boss Marc-Alexis Côté – getting fired, we're starting to find ourselves in a Ship of Theseus conundrum. How many Assassin's Creed developers does Ubisoft have to lose before it's no longer the company that made those beloved games in the first place?
Check out our rankings of the best Assassin's Creed games of all time.
