A new Game File report claims that Ubisoft cancelled an Assassin's Creed game that would have been set in the US Civil War and the Reconstruction period that followed. According to Game File's sources, the decision to cancel the game was made in 2024 in part because of the backlash against the reveal of the Black samurai Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows, but more pressingly over concerns about the current political climate in the US.
Game File says it interviewed five current and former Ubisoft employees, who spoke about the project and its cancellation under the condition of anonymity.
The game was apparently going to tell the story of a formerly enslaved Black man who, after moving west to start a new life, is recruited by the Assassin Brotherhood. Following that, he would return to the US south, coming into conflict with groups including the emerging Ku Klux Klan, the white supremacist hate group that continues to operate today. The game was in the concept phase and years away from release when the cancellation occurred, but work was reportedly underway.
Game File's sources, all either current or former employees of Ubisoft, said developers were "enthusiastic" about the game, which some felt had the potential to make a positive social impact. But despite initially being approved by Ubisoft leadership, it was eventually decided that the subject matter was too controversial, especially now, as the Trump administration makes moves to walk back civil rights legislation and restore honors and memorials to the Confederacy, which fought to maintain slavery during the American Civil War: One source said it was "too political in a country too unstable, to make it short."
While some of the game was meant to take place during the Civil War itself, the bulk of it would've been set during the Reconstruction era, the decade-plus that immediately followed. While Reconstruction was intended to address matters like granting citizenship to former slaves and reintegrating former Confederate states into a restored United States, the process faced furious and often violent resistance from whites in the south, which ultimately undermined it; Reconstruction was formally ended in 1877, leading to a resurgence of white supremacy and violent repression and disenfranchisement of Blacks in the American south.
It is, in other words, an intensely fraught topic in the US, a point driven home by the reaction to Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows, which was ugly, to put it mildly. That reaction also exposed the soft underbelly of Ubisoft leadership: In response to noise from the worst corners of gamerdom, CEO Yves Guillemot said in September 2024 that "our goal is not to push any specific agenda," and that its intent is simply to make "games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy." Ironically, the people who actually make those games seem less reticent about standing up for themselves and their work—but they're not the ones who make the final decision about what does and does not get made.
Ubisoft's self-professed apolitical bent goes back much further than Assassin's Creed Shadows. Despite making games that look from a distance like they might have something to say—Far Cry 5 leaps immediately to mind, but it's far from alone—Ubisoft has repeatedly insisted in the past that it does not make political videogames. But there are limits to how long you can maintain that "no politics" facade, and making a game about a Black assassin during Reconstruction would unavoidably be way beyond them.
The cancellation happened amidst a very rough period for Ubisoft, which was struggling with delays, under-performing games, and a sagging share price: As PC Gamer's Fraser Brown put it, 2024 was an "absolutely dire" year for the company.
One source told Game File that Ubisoft's finances had an impact on the decision to cancel the project as well: Ubisoft was naturally more risk-averse than it might have been five or six years ago when it was still riding high. Does that mean we might see this game resurrected at some point in the future? Anything is possible, but given how things are going right now in the US—and, frankly, some of the reactions to the Game File report I've seen on social media—I wouldn't bet on it.
