Ubisoft Scraps Assassin's Creed League Co-Op Multiplayer Game After Years of Development

Ubisoft has pulled the plug on another Assassin's Creed project. This time? A cooperative multiplayer game that had been quietly brewing for years.

According to French outlet Origami, which spoke with half a dozen Ubisoft employees, the project codenamed "AC League" got the axe recently. The 85-person team at Ubisoft Annecy learned about the cancellation just last week.

Here's what hurts. League wasn't some pie-in-the-sky concept. The game would've let four assassins team up in feudal Japan, tackling scripted missions together. Think Assassin's Creed Unity's co-op but modernised for 2026.

From DLC to Standalone to Nothing

League started life as DLC for Assassin's Creed Shadows. The plan? Close out the season pass with story-driven co-op missions.

But somewhere along the way, management got cold feet. The scope ballooned. Quality standards looked unreachable within a DLC timeframe. So Ubisoft Annecy pivoted, transforming League into a smaller standalone title using Shadows' assets.

They were aiming for alpha testing by May 2026. Invitations ready to go out. Everything seemed on track.

Then Vantage Studios stepped in.

The newly formed Tencent-backed subsidiary reviewed the project after an internal play session. Their verdict came swift and brutal.

Three Projects, Three Cancellations

League's death stings more when you realise this marks the third multiplayer Assassin's Creed project to collapse at Ubisoft Annecy.

First came "Echoes" in 2022. Described as having "massive online ambitions," it never made it past the conceptual phase. Then another unnamed project with Ubisoft Bordeaux fizzled out before League even started.

Each failure fed into the next, with developers salvaging what they could. League inherited pieces from those earlier attempts, creating a sort of Frankenstein's monster of cancelled multiplayer ideas.

Ubisoft Annecy has history here. They built the multiplayer modes for Brotherhood, Unity, and Black Flag. The studio knows how to make Assassin's Creed work with multiple players.

But knowing how doesn't guarantee success.

What Happens to the Team?

Here's where things get grim. Ubisoft Annecy employs roughly 270 people. With League cancelled, more than a quarter of the studio sits without clear assignments.

The timing couldn't be worse. Ubisoft just cancelled six other projects in January, including the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake. They laid off 70 developers from Ubisoft Halifax.

Morale has tanked. French unions are calling for a three-day strike from February 10-12. They want CEO Yves Guillemot to resign.

One developer who criticised the return-to-office mandate? Fired.

A leaked recording from an internal town hall did nothing to reassure employees about their futures at the company.

Not Completely Dead

Before you write off multiplayer Assassin's Creed entirely, there's a slim silver lining. About ten developers are transferring League's technical work back into Ubisoft's proprietary Anvil engine.

The goal? Make co-op features more modular and cheaper to produce for future AC titles.

Whether that translates into actual playable multiplayer down the line remains uncertain. Ubisoft's track record with cancelled projects doesn't inspire confidence.

Invictus Still Alive (For Now)

Worth noting: this cancellation doesn't affect Assassin's Creed Invictus, the other multiplayer AC game still in development.

Invictus takes a wildly different approach. Think Fall Guys meets Fortnite, with 16 players competing in arcade-style matches. Team deathmatch, speedrunning challenges, parkour competitions.

Announced back in 2022 by For Honor veterans, Invictus was supposed to launch in 2025. That didn't happen.

Recent leaks suggest even the developers working on it don't believe in the project. One source allegedly told streamer j0nathan the concept was "rubbish" and they're "disgusted to be working on this garbage."

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

The Multiplayer Drought Continues

Assassin's Creed hasn't featured proper multiplayer since 2014. Unity offered four-player co-op. Black Flag had competitive cat-and-mouse modes. Both were well-received.

Then nothing for over a decade.

Fans have been clamouring for a return to multiplayer. League seemed like the answer, combining modern technical foundations with lessons learned from Unity and Brotherhood.

Now those hopes rest entirely on Invictus, a game that sounds nothing like what traditional AC fans want and apparently demoralises its own development team.

Ubisoft's Ongoing Crisis

This cancellation sits within a larger pattern of chaos at Ubisoft. The company lost over 90% of its stock value. Projects get greenlit, balloon in scope, then collapse under their own weight.

The formation of Vantage Studios with Tencent backing was supposed to stabilise things. Instead, it's triggered a fresh wave of project reviews and cancellations.

Employees describe feeling "anger and despair." Can you blame them? Watching years of work vanish overnight while leadership shuffles executives and takes Tencent money would demoralise anyone.

The Assassin's Creed franchise remains Ubisoft's most valuable asset. They're planning at least nine more AC games over the next six years, including two RPGs, three remakes, and two multiplayer titles.

Whether those plans survive contact with reality is anyone's guess at this point.

For now, League joins the growing pile of cancelled Ubisoft projects. Another victim of the publisher's "creative reset."

And 85 developers at Ubisoft Annecy wonder what comes next.