According to reports, Ubisoft has canceled a co-op multiplayer Assassin's Creed project that was being developed at Ubisoft Annecy in France.
This information comes from French outlet Origami, whose report was independently translated by IGN. According to the report, the project codenamed "AC League" was originally conceived as DLC for Assassin's Creed Shadows and would likely have been set in the same feudal Japan era. The DLC was intended to bring together four assassins for a series of scripted missions supporting up to four players, which would have completed the story of the game's canceled season pass. You might have already heard about AC League if you follow Assassin's Creed rumors, as the project was mentioned last year in an Insider Gaming report.
As Origami reports, the project was quite ambitious and was meant to serve as a foundation for future multiplayer features across the entire series, such as a return to hybrid single-player/multiplayer gameplay seen in Assassin's Creed Unity or Black Flag (a remake of which has long been rumored). However, during development of AC League, Ubisoft Annecy leadership began questioning the wisdom of tying League to Shadows, fearing development would take too long, and proposed an alternative plan to turn the project into a smaller standalone game using open-world elements from Assassin's Creed: Shadows. Development progressed with plans for an invite-only alpha test in May 2026.
Unfortunately, AC League has reportedly become the latest casualty of Ubisoft's current upheaval. For several months, the company has been undergoing a major restructuring alongside significant cost-cutting measures, canceling numerous projects, closing studios, and reorganizing creative divisions. It was this restructuring that claimed AC League—Ubisoft Annecy leadership was informed of the project's cancellation last week.
However, as Origami reports, there remains a glimmer of hope for the project. Several Annecy employees have been selected to transfer the team's technical work back into Ubisoft's proprietary Anvil engine, with the aim of making it easier to add replayable multiplayer modes to future Assassin's Creed titles that would be cheaper to develop. Unfortunately, this leaves over a quarter of Annecy's 270 employees without a project at the moment, raising serious concerns about potential layoffs.
IGN has reached out to Ubisoft for comment.
Ubisoft's quarterly financial reports will be published next week, and everyone is watching the company closely to see if it can navigate these challenging financial conditions. In its last report, the company abandoned previous fiscal year forecasts in favor of significantly lowered expectations, reflecting the closure of two studios, mass layoffs, and the cancellation of six projects. Additionally, Ubisoft transferred three of its biggest franchises to Vantage Studios—a new business unit owned by Ubisoft but with a 25% stake held by Tencent—to help stay afloat.
