After working on a "AAA open-world" for 5 years, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag director's studio reportedly shut down by Tencent without releasing a single game

Tencent has reportedly shut down TiMi Montreal, the new studio led by long-time Assassin's Creed director Ashraf Ismail, without having released a single game.

Ismail made a name for himself by serving as the creative director on a host of beloved Ubisoft releases, including Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed Origins, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. After allegations of workplace impropriety and an internal investigation into misconduct, he was fired from Ubisoft in 2020 and later joined TiMi Montreal as creative director in 2022.

Game File now reports on the studio's alleged closure, citing a now-unavailable LinkedIn post from a former employee who says staff had known about the impending shutdown "for some time" and "the public will never get to experience what this team was capable of producing." It's worth noting that Ismail's account still lists him as a TiMi Montreal creative director.

Timi Montreal itself opened almost five years ago and was working on a "AAA open-world, service-focused" game, said to be an original IP in development for multiple platforms. The developer was part of Timi Studio Group, a Tencent subsidiary responsible for multiple major smartphone hits, such as Call of Duty: Mobile and Pokemon Unite, though the wider Timi Studio Group seems unaffected by the news.

2026 isn't looking much brighter in terms of studio closures and layoffs than the last few years, either. Sony recently shut down Bluepoint Games, the acclaimed developer behind Demon's Souls PS5 and Shadow of the Colossus PS4 remake. The maker of free-to-play shooter Highguard, also a company that allegedly received Tencent backing, suffered from layoffs weeks after launch as well.

"Several" Assassin's Creed single-player and multiplayer games to come, Ubisoft promises, plus more Far Cry amid further "restructuring across the company"