Ubisoft reportedly shelved an Assassin’s Creed project amid “political concerns”

According to several current and former Ubisoft employees who spoke anonymously to Game File, the cancelled project was set during the Reconstruction era following the American Civil War in the 1860s–1870s.

The game was reportedly going to follow a formerly enslaved Black man who moved west to rebuild his life, before being recruited by the Assassins and returning to the South to fight for justice—a journey that would have included confronting the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, according to five people familiar with the project.

Three of those sources told Game File that Ubisoft’s Paris management cancelled the game last summer for two main reasons: the online backlash surrounding the reveal of Yasuke, the Black samurai protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and concerns about the political climate in the U.S.

“I was very disappointed, though not surprised,” one source said. “Leadership keeps choosing to play it safe, sticking to the political status quo instead of taking risks or making bold creative choices.”

Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s new Tencent-backed subsidiary officially began operations last week.