The Assassin’s Creed franchise’s long-serving art director is leaving Ubisoft

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.

“Ubisoft has 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 the Assassin’s Creed franchise 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.

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 joining Jade Raymond’s new studio Haven, which is working on a PS5 exclusive that’s reportedly set to be an online game-as-a-service title.

“One of the best experiences of my career was creating AC1,” he said. “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 offer a 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 between Ubisoft Montreal (Assassin’s Creed Origins and Valhalla) and Ubisoft Quebec (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey).

Further reading

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Assassin’s Creed Infinity will ‘stay true to the franchise’s legacy of rich narrative experiences’

Ubisoft says the “ambitious" project is in the "early stages of development”

It has been claimed that Infinity will be a massive online game set across multiple historical periods, and one that that evolves over time as a live service.

On Tuesday, Ubisoft’s chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet called Infinity “an exciting and ambitious project” that will remain “true to Assassin’s Creeds’ legacy of rich narrative experiences”.

He also said Ubisoft expects to surprise players with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s second year of content.

Veteran Assassin’s Creed writer Darby 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, also left Ubisoft this year to join EA’s Motive studio.