Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin's Creed boss Marc-Alexis Côté has left Ubisoft after more than 20 years at the company, a stretch that saw him climb from a software engineer on PSP games to vice president and executive producer of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Côté's departure, initially reported by IGN, comes just two weeks after Ubisoft unveiled a new subsidiary called Vantage Studios that will be responsible for all future development of Assassin's Creed, as well as Far Cry and Rainbow Six.
"Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft," a Ubisoft representative said in a statement provided to PC Gamer.
"While we are saddened to see him go, we're confident that our talented teams will carry forward the strong foundation he helped build. 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."
Côté has a long history with the Assassin's Creed series, going back to a design credit on Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in 2010. He oversaw a resurgence of the series as executive producer beginning with Assassin's Creed Odyssey in 2018.
Maybe more importantly, he was also a strong defender of Assassin's Creed developers in the face of backlash against the inclusion of Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows: It was Côté who called out Elon Musk in June 2024 for "feeding hatred" with his attacks on the game, and in November of the same year Coté pushed back more broadly on "attacks driven by intolerance," a position that stood in sharp contrast to the milquetoast response from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.
The IGN report says Côté was offered a role at Vantage Studios, but opted to depart instead. Vantage Studios co-CEO Christophe Derennes said in an internal memo to staff that he was "disappointed" by the decision.
There's no indicated connection between the launch of Vantage and Côté's decision to leave, but the timing is, well awkward: It's been only seven months since the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows, a major and much-needed success for Ubisoft which should by rights be something of a moment of triumph; but it's also been just two weeks since the debut of Vantage Studios, the Tencent-backed "creative house" that's now responsible for the "development and expansion" of the Assassin's Creed brand. Vantage Studios is being led by Ubisoft veteran Christophe Derennes, who's been with the company for more than 35 years, and Charlie Guillemot, who comes to the job with extensive experience in being the son of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.
