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They were told it had to be “better than Tolkien”
I remember whenMike Laidlaw revealed he had joined Ubisoft Quebeca couple of years ago. What a match! The former lead designer forDragon Ageworking with the studio that created the brilliant Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. Surprisingly,Laidlaw announced his departure from Ubijust a year later, which a report revealed today was shortly after the game he was working on was cancelled. Even worse, we now know what that game could’ve been - an Arthurian fantasy RPG.
The report says that Hascoët “wasn’t a fan of the fantasy genre”, and told the Avalon team that if they were making a fantasy game, it had to be “better than Tolkien". Despite this, Bloomberg writes that the people who had worked on the game said it was progressing well before it was shut down, and they were “shocked to see the project impeded simply because the chief creative officer didn’t like its setting”.
Laidlaw and the Avalon team reportedly tried pitching new themes to Hascoët, changing it to a more modern sci-fi setting, and even to a Greek mythology setting. But Hascoët was reportedly having none of it, and cancelled the project outright last year.
From reports that have come to light over the last month or so, it seems Hascoët has allegedly been involved with shutting down ideas for projects for years.Bloomberg revealed in another reportthat he’s supposedly a large part of the reason Ubisoft were reluctant to give female characters equal or main billing in the Assassin’s Creed games.
Hascoët has now resigned from his position at the company, along with several others, followingabuse allegations that have come to light over the last month.
