Ubisoft has reportedly canceled the next mainline Assassin's Creed game (codenamed Project Scarlet) due to fears of political backlash in the United States.
According to Game filethe company canceled the game in July 2024, a month after CEO Yves Guillemot convicted racist reaction to the casting of historical figure Yasuke as one of the dual protagonists Assassin's Creed Shadows. In September, he took a more conciliatory tone, saying the company's goal was not to “promote any specific agendaThen, in October 2024, he said the company would “deal with the dynamics” of what he called “polarized comments” to protect the company's reputation and sales potential.
Insider Games confirmed the Game File report, adding that the game was codenamed “Project Scarlet” and development was led by Ubisoft Quebec. It was supposed to be the franchise's “next main RPG” and was set to launch in October 2027.
Current and former Ubisoft employees explained to Game File that the game would have been set in the American South during the mid-19th century, specifically during the period known as “Reconstruction” following the American Civil War. The main character would be a formerly enslaved black man recruited by the titular Assassins to fight the Ku Klux Klan and other oppressive forces.
These sources claimed that despite the internal enthusiasm for the game, it was rumored to have been canceled due to backlash over Yasuke's starring role in Shadows and concerns that the political climate in the United States is becoming increasingly tense. “The situation is too political in a country that is too unstable, in short,” one of the sources said.
Why might a Reconstruction-era Assassin's Creed game cause backlash?
The American Reconstruction Era was the period of time following the Civil War when the political and social consequences of the end of slavery and the defeat of the Confederate States swept across the American South. It is largely defined by state-sanctioned efforts to delegitimize the rights of recently freed black Americans through laws calledBlack codes“and state-sanctioned terrorism by groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.
These efforts were aided by a federal government that proved conciliatory toward former Confederates under Presidents Andrew Johnson and Ulysses S. Grant. The assassination of President Abraham Lincoln by pro-Confederate actor John Wilkes Booth loomed over these events, as Lincoln believed in a different postwar strategy that would win more concessions from the South and strip former Confederates of political power.
Many historians believe the failure to protect the civil liberties of black Americans perpetuated more than a century of racist inequality, only partially alleviated by the civil rights movement of the 1960s. George Floyd 2020 protests highlighted the fact that these inequalities persist, resulting in many companies –including game developers-Pledge support for improved diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Over the past five years, these programs have been targeted by conservative and far-right groups, and their destruction was promised in an infamous document. Program document of Project 2025 prepared for the expected Trump administration. The proposed policy carries dark portents of what could escalate into censorship of the game development community, warnings that now seem reasonable given the administration's ongoing criticism of DEI initiatives.
As President Trump's campaign gained momentum, far-right agitators attacked Ubisoft for making Yasuke one of the game's main characters. Assassin's Creed Shadows. Despite his real role in Japanese history, supporters of the campaign accused Ubisoft of forcing diversity by making a black man the main character in a game set in Japan during the Sengoku period.
This campaign had little effect on the game's popularity. financial success with over 5 million “unique players”but apparently shaped the thinking of Ubisoft management. It could be argued that, given its long history, Project Scarlet was destroyed by the injustices of the era it hoped to portray.
