Last updated on May 13, 2026
Assassin’s Creed Hexe was supposed to be the one Ubisoft fans could count on. Set in 16th-century Holy Roman Empire, built around witch trials, darker in tone than anything the franchise had done in years. Just two months ago, insider reports were calling it the project “everyone at Ubisoft wants to work on.” That sentiment aged poorly.
In late April 2026, Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson reported that around 50 developers had been removed from the Hexe team. The game has also lost two major creative leads in quick succession. And the new creative director is stripping out some of the most distinctive elements the project was known for.
What Happened to the Development Team
The 50 developers were not laid off immediately. They were moved to what Ubisoft calls its Interproject team, an internal holding zone for employees who are not currently assigned to a project. According to sources familiar with the matter, workers placed there have three months to secure a new role within Ubisoft. If they cannot, redundancy is on the table.
Ubisoft responded to the reports by describing the move as standard procedure. That is the kind of statement companies give when they do not want to say more than they have to.
This shuffle came just days after Ubisoft cancelled Project Alterra, its Animal Crossing-inspired title, suggesting a broader internal effort to cut costs and concentrate resources on projects with the clearest commercial path forward.
Two Directors Gone, One New One Making Changes
The leadership situation around Hexe has been turbulent. Clint Hocking, the original creative director, departed in February 2026 as part of a wider Ubisoft restructure. Shortly after, game director Benoit Richer also left, heading off to start his own indie studio.
Jean Guesdon stepped in as creative director. Guesdon also holds the role of franchise head of content at Vantage Studios, which means he is overseeing the Assassin’s Creed brand more broadly while also running Hexe’s creative direction day to day.
Since taking over, Guesdon has made some significant calls.
No More Cat. No More Magic.
Earlier leaks had suggested Hexe would feature a cat companion as a core gameplay element, tied to the game’s witchcraft themes. That is gone. Guesdon removed it as part of a move toward what sources describe as a “more grounded approach.”
The bigger shift is in how witchcraft itself will be portrayed. The protagonist will not cast spells or wield supernatural powers. Instead, she is described as someone with deep knowledge of chemistry and natural substances. When she appears to vanish in a cloud of smoke, that is a smoke bomb, not magic. To ordinary citizens of the 16th century, it looks like witchcraft. To the player, it is practical science.
The setting, 16th-century witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire, remains intact. The supernatural interpretation of that setting does not.
Whether that change improves or diminishes the game depends entirely on what Hexe was always supposed to be. Ubisoft has officially described it as a “unique, darker, narrative-driven” Assassin’s Creed experience. A grounded approach to witch trial-era Europe is not incompatible with that description. What it does is remove the thing that made Hexe feel genuinely distinct from everything else the franchise has released in the past decade.
The Release Date Is Already Under Pressure
Hexe is internally targeting June 2027. That window was already a move back from earlier expectations of a 2026 launch. Sources cited by Henderson suggest the decision to cut 50 developers was partly a budget control measure designed to leave room for the timeline to slip further, toward Holiday 2027 or beyond, without causing additional financial damage.
Ubisoft has not officially confirmed a release date or shown the game publicly. With Black Flag Resynced launching July 9, 2026, and Invictus, the franchise’s multiplayer project, also in development, the company has plenty on its plate before Hexe needs to surface.
The Assassin’s Creed roadmap is crowded right now. Hexe will get its moment, but the signals coming out of its development suggest that moment is further away than it was supposed to be, and the game that arrives may look quite different from what was first envisioned back in 2022.
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