Ubisoft reportedly canceled a bold new Assassin’s Creed project last year that would have taken the series into one of America’s most turbulent and politically charged eras. The canceled project would’ve portrayed the aftermath of the Civil War.
A new report cites that the game was shelved in mid-2024 after executives in the company deemed its premise “too political in a country too unstable.” Another possible reason would be the backlash and negative reception of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and its Black protagonist, Yasuke.
We Could’ve Gotten a Post–Civil War Assassin’s Creed
The now-canceled project would have taken the Assassin’s Creed franchise into one of the most politically charged and underexplored periods in American history. Set in the years following the Civil War, the game centered on a formerly enslaved Black man who had moved west to begin a new life, only to be recruited by the Assassin Brotherhood.
Ubisoft canceled an ‘ASSASSINS CREED’ game set in the post-Civil War era
• Featured a Black Assassin who was formerly a slave
• Players would fight the emerging KKK
• Leadership canceled it after concerns with U.S. political climate & Yasuke backlash
(Source:… pic.twitter.com/PBbXT6ocjY
We would follow his journey back to the South, where he’d fight for justice against the rising threat of white supremacist groups, including the newly formed Ku Klux Klan. Developers who spoke anonymously to Game File described the game as one that told a deeply human story, connecting the franchise’s historical fiction to the real struggles of the Reconstruction era.
The concept had been approved in its early phase and was still years away from release. But despite the initial approval from the higher-ups at the company, it was quietly shut down last July. Developers say that by mid-2024, executives in Paris were concerned that releasing a game centered on a Black protagonist during Reconstruction would be “too divisive” in the current U.S. political environment.
Ubisoft is Playing It Safe and Taking Less Risks
Sources suggest that the company’s upper management grew uneasy with the project as social tensions in the United States escalated. Three separate developers told Game File that the leadership’s decision was heavily influenced by the controversy surrounding Yasuke, the Black samurai protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
One thing Ubisoft’s leadership has forgotten about their best selling franchise is that Assassin’s Creed IS political.
The games have always seen the poorest, the mistreated and the forgotten unite to fight against an oppressor.
Assassin’s Creed is thirst for justice. pic.twitter.com/ETIm1f4MES
After the Yasuke backlash, it seems like Ubisoft executives reportedly decided to avoid another project that could invite political scrutiny or online outrage. One developer summed up the company’s stance as: “Too political in a country too unstable, to make it short.”
And that’s why the studio is playing it safe. “They are making more and more decisions to maintain the political ‘status quo’ and take no stand, no risk, even creative,” another source said.
Here's a reminder of what happened to a few devs that worked on Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Maybe it's for the best that this didn't happen because this would be a repeat. There's literal human beings out there that get offended at the idea of black people fighting against the… https://t.co/VKOWYJ1WZu pic.twitter.com/ngXgXjPkiS
This pattern of retreating from politically sensitive themes isn’t new for Ubisoft. Despite creating games that intersect with real-world ideologies, the company has always had the stance that its titles aren’t meant to have a political message.
And so the Civil War project’s demise is a perfect example of the publisher’s ongoing struggle to balance commercial caution with creative expression. And that applies to all game studios to a certain degree.
What do you think of the news of this canceled idea? Would you have tried it? Let us know in the comments!
