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- Report: Assassin's Creed: Codename Hexe ditches supernatural witch powers for chemistry-based tricks like smoke bombs, aiming to be more grounded.
- Franchise overseer Jean Guesdon removed features like a cat companion during a shake-up to make themes "more grounded."
- Development pull: 50 developers moved to Interproject team, facing three-month placement pressure and potential redundancies; release window may shift.
While the Black Flag remake may have Assassin’s Creed fans’ attention for now, the game’s next mainline entry is reportedly in the middle of some good old-fashioned Ubisoft tumult.
Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe is due to launch next year, but it’s recently been undergoing a big shake-up behind the scenes, according to a report by Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson. Little official info has been released about the title so far, but we do know for certain that it’s based around the period of the witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire.
New AC franchise overseer Jean Guesdon has been instilling tweaks, including the removal of a cat companion character, in efforts to make the witchcraft themes “more grounded,” according to the report. Not only that, but actual witch-like powers are now being replaced by “the game’s protagonist understanding the science of chemicals,” like her knowing “how to make a smoke bomb, which, to ordinary citizens, makes it look like she can disappear.”
So, she’s basically a magician, I guess? Not very witchy. And I’m not sure why a series that features things like the Animus and the Apple of Eden feels the need to be more “grounded,” either.
What’s worse is that, as part of the development shuffling, the report says that Guesdon has taken 50 developers off the project and put them onto an “interproject team.” Henderson cites unnamed sources who said that “members of the Interproject team are required to secure a project at Ubisoft within a three-month period, or they could face redundancy” and potentially get laid off.
The next Assassin’s Creed game after Black Flag: Resynced is currently set to launch in June 2027, according to the report, but the recent changes on the dev team could push it back to the holiday season next year instead, Henderson suggests.
I personally haven’t dabbled in the AC franchise for quite some time, and the idea of witchcraft being a theme in Hexe had me excited. If that’s being changed now, though, it’s a bit disappointing to hear.
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