Assassin's Creed series president leaves Ubisoft
Blog Andrew Joseph 14 Oct , 2025 0
Assassin's Creed series lead Marc-Alexis Côté has left Ubisoft after a career spanning more than 20 years, IGN has learned.
The news comes two weeks after Ubisoft's biggest brand, Assassin's Creed, was run by Vantage Studios. An independent commercial entity established by Ubisoft, which holds 25% of the shares of Chinese giant Tencent It will now also oversee all future Far Cry and Rainbow Six games.
Ubisoft employees were informed of the news this afternoon via an internal email, which also discussed the need for Vantage Studios' leadership team to be “aligned” with its core goals while wishing Côté all the best for the future. IGN has learned that Vantage Studios offered Côté a leadership role, but he turned it down.
In an internal note to Ubisoft employees obtained by IGN, Vantage Studios co-CEO Christophe Derennes said he was “disappointed” by Côté's decision and that the former leader “has his own expectations and priorities for the creation and future of Vantage Studios.”
“Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN today. “While we are sad to see him leave, we are confident that our talented team will carry on the strong foundation he helped build.
“We are deeply grateful for the impact Mark 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 team and our players. We sincerely thank him for his many contributions and wish him continued success in all of his future endeavors.”
Côté, known as “Mac” to his colleagues, joined Ubisoft in 2005 as a software engineer before serving as lead engine programmer on Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Since then, he joined the Assassin's Creed series as lead level designer during Brotherhood, and later served as game director on Assassin's Creed 3.
As Creative Director, Cote led the development of a range of projects at Ubisoft Quebec, where the talented team produced Assassin's Creed: Black Flag DLC Freedom Cry, Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and served as Senior Producer.
In March 2022, while Assassin's Creed Shadows was being developed in Quebec and Ubisoft attempted to relaunch the series with a more consistent story focus via the Animus Hub (then known as Assassin's Creed Infinite), it was Cote who took the reins of the entire franchise, charting out a slew of Marvel-style upcoming projects, including the upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe, which currently lacks a release date.
Last December, amid heated discussions surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows' Dark Knight protagonist Yasuke, Cotter defended the franchise's role in storytelling in an impassioned speech at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Cotter said the online backlash against the game was “devastating” to his colleagues and defended the game's high-profile delay as an attempt to meet fans' expectations for the game's quality.
“Assassin's Creed has always been about exploring all aspects of human history, which by its very nature is diverse. Staying true to history means embracing the richness of human perspectives—without compromise,” Cote said last year.
Today's news comes just days after a report revealed Ubisoft cancels an Assassin's Creed game set in the post-Civil War period The film features a former black slave and shows his battles with the Ku Klux Klan. Although some early work had been carried out by Ubisoft Quebec, the project was abandoned in the summer of 2024, when it was still in its infancy, due to concerns about the political climate in the United States.
Tom Phillips is IGN's news editor. You can contact Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social