Assassin's Creed Shadows apparently had multiplayer planned, but it's cancelled

It’s been a long while since Assassin’s Creed last had a multiplayer mode with Unity’s co-op mode and Black Flag’s asymmetrical PvP now well over a decade old. It appears that Ubisoft had been planning a co-op focused DLC for last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but a new report from Origami claims the project is now cancelled.

According to the French publication, the project was known internally as Assassin’s Creed League and would have borrowed parts of the Shadows map to house scripted missions replayable in up to four-player co-op.

This was apparently in development at Ubisoft Annecy, the French studio that was also responsible for the multiplayer modes of classic Assassin’s Creed games.

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However, the project was reportedly axed last week as developers were informed the project would no longer be going ahead.

The news arrives not long after Ubisoft announced a huge company restructure whereby its internal teams are being separated into ‘Creative Houses’, with Assassin’s Creed now falling under Ubisoft Vantage, a subsidiary co-financed by Tencent.

While the Shadows-themed DLC will seemingly no longer see the light of day, Ubisoft Annecy’s work won’t be completely wasted.

A team of 10 developers have apparently been tasked with porting key multiplayer features back into the Anvil engine that Assassin’s Creed uses, which should pave the way for multiplayer modes to be more easily created down the line.

However, several more developers were seemingly tied to League, which currently leaves them without a project. As Ubisoft continues with its company restructure, there’s worry that more staff layoffs could be imminent.

Origami reports that the cancellation of League is in addition to the six other unannounced projects that Ubisoft said it had axed in a press release last month.

It’s thought that the heavily leaked Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake was supposed to launch later this year, but that appears to have been pushed back to 2027 as part of the restructuring.

Employees at Ubisoft’s French studios are expected to strike between February 10 and 12 next week in response to the recent changes at the company.

Mirror Online has reached out to Ubisoft for comment on the reported cancellation of Assassin’s Creed League.