Assassin's Creed Loses Another Veteran; Series' Art Director Leaves Ubisoft
Ubisoft parted ways with another developer who for many years worked on the success of Assassin's Creed. This time Raphael Lacoste, who for 16 years helped in the creation of subsequent installments of the series, has left the company.
Ubisoft has ambitious plans for the development of Assassin's Creed, but the company will have to carry them out without one of the fathers of the franchise's success. Raphael Lacoste, art director since 2012, who worked on Assassin's Creed from beginning of the series' existence, has left the company. The French creator announced his parting with Ubisoft on Twitter.
It's another AC veteran who left Ubisoft this year. In April, Eric Baptizat (director of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla) left the company and joined EA Motive (of which we learned only in June). Earlier, Darby McDevitt, the main writer of Black Flag and Revelations, who also worked on Unity and Valhalla parted ways with the French publisher.
Ashraf Ismail's resignation is also worth mentioning, although the case of the former creative director of the Nordic installment of the series was a little different from this year's departures. McDevitt and Baptizat resigned without any controversy and in a rather good atmosphere. The same goes for Lacoste, who - following McDevitt's example - describes his parting with the company as a "leap of faith" in search of new challenges. We don't know what his plans are, but we can believe he's not giving up on game development.
Of course, one can spin one theory or another about the creator's intentions or the reasons for his departure. The players may also wonder how the next Assassin's Creed will do without another of the creators who have been instrumental in the series' success. We know that the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Infinity will be an ambitious live-service game, but one that stays true to the series' core premise. How true these promises are - time will tell.
