The Assassin’s Creed franchise’s art director, Raphael Lacoste, has announced that he is leaving Ubisoft.
“I have decided to set sails on new adventures and challenges”, he tweeted.
“Ubisofthas been a nice home for me for 16 years… but it was time to do another leap of faith,” he added.
Lacoste worked on eight entries in theAssassin’s Creedfranchise during his time at Ubisoft, including 2007’s original.
According to his LinkedIn profile, he was the franchise’s art director for almost 10 years, working on Assassin’s Creed titles including Revelations, Black Flag, Origins, and most recently Valhalla.
2/3 - I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart our wonderful community and the incredible talents I’ve had the chance to collaborate with, over these amazing years.pic.twitter.com/H1j7WpOu3v
Ubisoft has been a nice home for me for 16 years, and I am very touched about this, the trust they gave me as well as the opportnities, but it was time to do another leap of faith :)
It’s unclear what Lacoste is planning next, but he previously took a break from the games industry to work as a matte painter and senior concept artist in the film industry, on movies including Terminator Salvation, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Death Race, Immortals 2011, Repo Men, and Jupiter Ascending.
UPDATE:Lacoste has confirmed that he’s joiningJade Raymond’s new studioHaven, which is working on aPS5exclusive that’sreportedly set to be an online game-as-a-service title.
“One of the best experiences of my career was creating AC1,” hesaid. “Being more hands-on with concept art & working with many of the same core team to build a new original IP is inspiring & exciting.”
ORIGINAL STORY CONTINUES:Lacoste’s departure from Ubisoft coincides with the publisher’s decision to rethink how it develops its biggest franchise, which has sold over 155 million units.
The company recently announced plans to offera second year of expansions for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla—a first for the series—and confirmed that a new project codenamed Assassin’s Creed Infinity is in the works.
Infinity is a collaboration betweenUbisoft Montreal(Assassin’s Creed Origins and Valhalla) andUbisoft Quebec(Assassin’s Creed Odyssey).
Further reading
It has been claimed thatInfinity will be a massive online gameset across multiple historical periods, and one that that evolves over time as a live service.
On Tuesday, Ubisoft’s chief financial officerFrédérick Duguet called Infinity “an exciting and ambitious project”that will remain “true to Assassin’s Creeds’ legacy of rich narrative experiences”.
He also saidUbisoft expects to surprise playerswithAssassin’s Creed Valhalla’s second year of content.
Veteran Assassin’s Creed writerDarby McDevitt left Ubisoft in March. During more than a decade at Ubisoft Montreal, McDevitt created stories and dialogue for Assassin’s Creed games Revelations, Black Flag, Unity, Origins, and Valhalla.
The game director behind Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,Eric Baptizat, alsoleft Ubisoft this year to join EA’s Motive studio.
