Ubisoft is finally answering years of fan requests with the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Codename Red, taking their historical stealthy-stabby series to a Feudal Japan setting. According to the publisher, the game is set to be the “biggest blockbuster for 2024,” but it might be so big that it’s actually responsible for the cancellation of another big Ubisoft sequel.
According to a report from VGC earlier this week, Ubisoft had cancelled a sequel to the Breath Of The Wild-like open-world game, Immortals Fenyx Rising. The publisher responded to the report and said “we are redirecting and reallocating some creative teams and resources within the Quebec studio to other unannounced projects.” Ubisoft continued to say the decision would accelerate the development of projects in their “biggest brands.” We now have an idea of what those projects could be.
Axios reporter Stephen Totilo took to social media to share what he had heard about the Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel. “I heard that Immortals 2’s focus on Polynesian gods was promising and being handled well,” tweeted Totilo yesterday. “But it sounds like getting [Assassin's Creed Codename Red] done is the priority at the Quebec City studio.”
“Notable that Ubisoft’s statement says staff is being moved to unannounced projects, which I’m sure is the case for many,” continued Totilo, “but the expectation from people I spoke to close to Ubisoft was that Red could use more people (as does Hexe), as Ubisoft bets on [Assassin’s Creed] for its future.”
Immortals Fenyx Rising came out in 2020 and received a pretty positive response from those who played the colourful open-world slash ‘em up. It’s a shame that solid foundation is reportedly not getting a continuation, in favour of more manpower on Assassin's Creed Red and Assassin’s Creed Hexe - the creepier and “very different” take on the series.
Ubisoft had previously cancelled at least seven projects but still has another large one in the pipeline.
In the meantime, you can check out every upcoming Assassin’s Creed game. Spoilers: there’s a lot.