New Assassin’s Creed Game Reportedly Cancelled Due to Tense “Political Climate”

A brand new Assassin’s Creed game was reportedly cancelled last year due to a tense “political climate” in the United States. The Assassin’s Creed franchise has been no stranger to political and even religious stories. The series has spanned multiple centuries, tackling different countries, cultures, and groups in the process. Part of the appeal of the Ubisoft stealth-action series is being able to witness historical events and meet legendary figures first-hand, while typically playing a pivotal role in the events that shaped our world. Over the years, Assassin’s Creed has featured pirates, the Pope, aliens, George Washington, and many other wild groups of characters.

Earlier this year, fans finally got Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the long-awaited entry set in feudal Japan. It is part of a larger vision for the future of the Assassin’s Creed franchise as Ubisoft works on multiple big games in the series, including one that centers around witches. That is expected to be the next mainline game in the series, though a remake of Assassin’s Creed 4 is also heavily rumored to be just around the corner. However, one Assassin’s Creed game was cancelled before anyone could even learn of its existence, according to a brand new report.

Civil War-era Assassin’s Creed Game Reportedly Cancelled

According to Game File‘s Stephen Totilo, a new Assassin’s Creed game set partially during but mostly after the Civil War, specifically the Reconstruction era in the late 18000s, was cancelled last summer. Players would’ve filled the shoes of a black protagonist who had been enslaved in the South, but decided to move West to start a new life. However, the Assassins would eventually recruit him and ask him to return home to fight various forces, including the Ku Klux Klan.

The new Assassin’s Creed game sought to address how racial tensions could be used to control society as a whole, capitalizing on current political issues in the United States. The untitled Assassin’s Creed game was still in the conceptual stage and years away from being finished, but was abruptly cancelled after the backlash to Yasuke being revealed for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

The biggest factor, however, was that Ubisoft executives also deemed things too politically tense in the world to make this game. The company was in a precarious financial state and was fearful of making decisions that would upset players or push fans away from the series.

Ironically, this wouldn’t have even been the first Assassin’s Creed game centered around a slave. The standalone Assassin’s Creed 4 expansion, Freedom Cry, let you play as a former slave known as Adéwalé. The game’s central conflict revolved around Adéwalé freeing slaves and disrupting the slave trade as a whole in the 1700s. Assassin’s Creed 3 also took a crack at American history by covering the Revolutionary War, but that was far less politically tense. Totilo noted that sources don’t expect this cancelled Assassin’s Creed game to ever be revived.

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