In kicking off the New Year by staring down the barrel of yet another controversy, Ubisoft has been hit with a wrongful termination lawsuit on behalf of former Assassin’s Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté, who claims that his 2025 departure from the embattled video game studio was, contrary to reports, far from “voluntary”.
Joining the franchise as a mission director for 2010’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood before being promoted to his most recent role with 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Coté’s surprise exit was announced by Ubisoft in October 2025 shortly after the formation of their new subsidiary Vantage Studios, as jointly formed with Tencent in service of improving the quality of their top Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six franchises.
“Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft,” read the company’s official announcement. “While we are saddened to see him go, we’re confident that our talented teams will carry forward the strong foundation he helped build.”
“We are deeply grateful for the impact Marc-Alexis has had over the years, particularly in shaping the Assassin’s Creed brand into what it is today. His leadership, creativity, and dedication have left a lasting mark on our teams and our players. We thank him sincerely for his many contributions and wish him continued success in all his future endeavors.”
But according to Coté’s aforementioned lawsuit, as filed with the Superior Court of Quebec (who has jurisdiction over the case due to the Assassin’s Creed team being based in Ubisoft’s office within the city), his exit was anything but amicable.
As relayed from the original filing by Radio-Canada, the catalyst for this legal battle was sparked during a Summer 2025 meeting regarding Vantage Studios’ operations, whereat Coté was informed that the subsidiary was currently looking to fill a “Head of Franchise” position for Assassin’s Creed.
Realizing that this new role would have usurped practically the entirety of his authority over the franchise, especially as he could not even apply to the position due to it being located in France rather than Canada, Disoriented, confused and affected by the anxiety-provoking situation
would raise the issue with company leadership, who would in turn offer him a still-powerless consolation position as Assassin’s Creed‘s “Head of Production”.
Rejecting this offer, he was then reportedly offered the potential opportunity to serve as the director of a yet-to-be-created subsidiary aimed at revitalizing Ubisoft’s second-tier franchises, but as he considered his position to be that of the “guardian of the Assassin’s Creed franchise
“, Coté was wary of making a snap decision on the offer.
Finding himself “disoriented, confused and affected by the anxiety-provoking situation
“, the Assassin’s Creed vet asked Ubisoft to allow him two weeks to think things over – and though the studio did oblige, they did so with the added condition that he give them a definitive answer at the end of those two weeks.
Ultimately finding the offer to be an “unacceptable demotion
” and a “disguised dismissal”, Coté immediately put in his exit notice.
In response, Ubisoft invited Coté to keep on in his ‘reflection period’ until the deadline, ostensibly in order to allow the involved parties time to sort out their affairs.
But despite making the request, the next day saw Ubisoft publish their above announcement, in doing so framing Coté’s exit was far more of a proactive decision on his part than it actually was.
To this end, Coté says Ubisoft’s end-of-employment statement describes his exit as a “voluntary departure”, which he claims is not only a false descriptor, but is also being used as a cudgel to deny him both his rightfully due compensation as well as future employment opportunities (as a ‘voluntary’ exit would trigger the non-competition clause of his contract).
Per Radio-Canada, “Côté is therefore demanding two years of salary, citing the difficulty of finding a comparable job in a video game industry in the midst of slowdown. He also seeks $75 000 in moral damage for what he considers to be an abuse of power and a damage to his reputation, bringing his pursuit to more than 1.3 million dollars.”
“He also hopes that the Court will lift its non-competition clause, which limits its employment opportunities within other companies in the video game industry.”
As of publication, Ubisoft has yet to offer a public response to Coté’s accusations.
