After Jean Guesdon took over as creative director on Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe, reportedly removing anything “magical” from the title, it seems the development team has faced more changes. Sources speaking to Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson claim that 50 developers were removed from the project last week.
This followed the reported decision to cancel the Animal Crossing-like Project Alterra, but those developers haven’t been laid off. Instead, they’re reportedly on Ubisoft’s Interproject team and must be assigned another project within three months. Failing to do so means redundancy, apparently.
Why scale back so many developers, especially following reports that development on Codename Hexe is proceeding well? Apparently, it’s to prevent the budget from going overboard, and while internally targeting June 2027, the title may end up delayed to Holiday 2027 after these changes (which Henderson previously claimed as a release window).
Guesdon’s appointment to the team follows his new position as head of content on the Assassin’s Creed franchise at Vantage Studios. He would take over for the previous creative director, Clint Hocking, and after joining the team last January, game director Benoit Richer also left recently.
Whatever may be going on, Ubisoft has yet to officially showcase Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe or confirm a release date. The publisher recently revealed Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, the long-rumored remake of the 2013 classic, and announced a July 9th launch date.
