Ubisoft Reportedly Cancelled an Assassin’s Creed Game Set in the South During Reconstruction Due to Political Fears

This new installment in the history-spanning series was reportedly going to be set in the American Reconstruction period of the 1860s and 1870s. The game would have centered on a formerly enslaved Black protagonist, who then would be recruited by the series’ assassins in order to fight the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the American south. Game File cites five current and former Ubisoft employees, who say that the game was scrapped during the concept phase in July 2024. One source described the game as being “too political in a country too unstable.”

In the same summer of that year, Ubisoft was the subject of much online vitriol due to the historically accurate inclusion of the Black samurai Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows as a lead character. Some particularly vocal gamers, as well as the likes of Elon Musk himself, angrily accused the game of “wokeness” despite Yasuke being a real figure from Japanese history. This was handled rather inconsistently by Ubisoft, with the developers defending their work while Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemont spoke in vague terms, saying: “Finally, let me address some of the polarized comments around Ubisoft lately. I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”

The current United States political climate is alleged to have been the biggest contributing factor for cancellation of the post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed project, with Ubisoft’s rocky financial state also being significant. “They are making more and more decisions to maintain the political ‘status quo’ and take no stand, no risk, even creative,” one source told Game File. 

It is disappointing to say the least that a game spoken of so enthusiastically by its developers can be thrown away so easily, especially when the series’ very premise of being set in history is of course going to entangle itself with colonialism and its effects on society. Previous Assassin’s Creed games, such as Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry, have already dealt with similar themes, and the entire franchise is built around a centuries-spanning battle against a powerful, shadowy group opposed to freedom and democratic ideals. The fact that it could be considered controversial for a game to criticize slavery, racial bigotry, and the Ku Klux Klan in 2025 is just another sign of our rancid times.