Ben-DutkaThis is guaranteed to be quite the saga. Maybe not as mamy fireworks as the West/Zampella/Activision fiasco, but still, sparks could fly.
Initially, it was reported that Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Désilets had left Ubisoft for the second time in three years. He originally left to take charge of THQ Montreal back in 2010 but when THQ went down, Ubisoft purchased the studio and its projects. At the time, it was expected that Désilets would stay on.
However, a company spokesperson released the following statement :
"The acquisition of THQ Montréal in January allowed Ubisoft to welcome 170 experienced developers, including Patrice Désilets, to our existing and renowned workforce.
Unfortunately, since the acquisition, the good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice's and the studio's visions have been inconclusive. As a result, Patrice has left the studio. Our priorities remain with the teams already hard at work on projects in development. They are at the root of Ubisoft Montréal’s past and future successes."
That sounded relatively straightforward but almost immediately after that story was published, Désilets told Polygon that in fact, things aren't quite that simple. Here's his rebuttal:
"Contrary to any statements made earlier today, this morning I was terminated by Ubisoft. I was notified of this termination in person, handed a termination notice, and was unceremoniously escorted out of the building by two guards without being able to say goodbye to my team or collect my personal belongings.
This was not my decision. Ubisoft's actions are baseless and without merit. I intend to fight Ubisoft vigorously for my rights, for my team and for my game."
Oh goody . Drama! In all seriousness, though, we'd be interested to know what really transpired, and why things went down this way.
He wanted to make Assassins Creed a non-yearly franchise. If it was EA, i bet he would have been executed.
I'm also thinking the same. Patrice Désilets probably does not want to make AC an annual franchise. It's also an extremely unfair treatment that Ubisoft gave him so I wish him luck in his fight for his rights (provided that he's on the right side of things).
As much as I love the AC franchise, a yearly instalment makes it hard for me to catch up with it. I have only started AC: Revelations, as a matter of fact. And now I have to catch up with AC:III and AC:IV is also coming soon. So yeah, it's rather daunting.
Pfft…..THANK YOU SOMEBODY!!! Now I don't feel singled out in my gaming……um…..behindedness???
Its these yearly releases that are screwing me up. COD is one of these game that messed me up. I now have a back log of 25 games that I bought and was planning to play. But my addiction to sniping people in COD pretty much left those games collecting dust. 20 of these are not even opened yet. Add the 25 physical games i havent played yet, amd now i have tons of game that i got from PSN +.
Haha, awesome! I mean, not that the dude got fired but that he plans to fight the power. Stick it to the man, get your game back!
Wait, what game are we talking about? AC or a THQ Montreal game?
wow, looks like Ubisoft has jumped on the kotex-activision way of doing business.
Dude, Ubisoft is walking down an all to familiar and dark road.
This is exactly what I was thinking.
WTF would you treat the guy who has created this generations best selling new IP like this!?
seriously, thanks for the billions of dollars now theres the door.
yay, like i needed another reason to hate ubisoft!
fast coming up to EA as the worlds worst company!
hey, look on the bright side, at least EA will have competition next year for the golden poo award…….
Fight them back man.
'Rise' heh.
They probably realized they would have to start paying him more money because of how successful Assassins Creed has become and they just decided that he should leave so they can save money.
That or he wanted to really take the game in a new direction but ubisoft said no and he said well its my game and they said you're FIRED!!!!
Because lets face it AC is a pretty decent game, but other than small changes here and there, it feels like playing the same game every year. Which isn't a bad thing to some but I just think it could be so much better if they devoted effort into maybe making the world a bit less open and then fixing the AI, and making stealth more functional etc.
I am interested in finding out the details of all of this because Ubisoft owes this guy big for making the AC series.
Good luck to this guy. At least the AC games better than the COD games imo.. but things can get out of control and turn into big money slurpees.
I actually hope he get his team and game back, F! Ubisoft.
Apparently Ubisoft is following EA's lead & "boom goes the dynamite" to quote Cleavland Brown (Family Guy)
They ARE Abstergo!