David Vs Goliath, Patrice vs Ubisoft
- The First Breakup (2010): The "Cash Cow" Dispute
You guessed that Ubisoft wanted "loads of future titles" and he disagreed. This is exactly why he quit the first time. [1, 2, 3]
The Trilogy Vision: Patrice Désilets always envisioned Assassin's Creed as a tight trilogy. His plan was roughly: AC1 (Altaïr), AC2 (Ezio), and AC3 (Desmond in modern day) to finish the story. [1]
The Annualization Demand: After AC2 became a massive hit, Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot demanded an annual release schedule. They wanted a new Assassin's Creed on the shelves every single year.
The Breaking Point: Patrice was forced to make Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (a game he didn't originally plan) to meet this annual quota. Realizing Ubisoft would never let the story "end" because it was too profitable, he quit in 2010 to join THQ, seeking a place where he could actually finish a game on his own terms.
Cut to 2013: When Ubisoft bought the studio in 2013, they acquired the full design documents, concept art, and gameplay prototypes for 1666: Amsterdam.They knew exactly what Patrice was building: a dark, atmospheric game about controlling animals (ravens, cats, rats) and dealing with the Devil.
2013 Escorted Out: They viewed it as a threat: Internal sources from the 2013 lawsuit suggested Ubisoft felt 1666 was too similar to Assassin's Creed. They couldn't have their "star creator" launching a competing historical franchise from a rival studio. [1]
When Ubisoft bought THQ (and accidentally bought Patrice back), they discovered he had signed a "Golden Ticket" contract with THQ that terrified them.Total Creative Control: THQ was so desperate for a hit that they gave Patrice 100% creative freedom. Ubisoft, a company famous for "design by committee" and editorial mandates, could not legally tell him what to do on 1666: Amsterdam.The Ultimatum: Ubisoft tried to force him to tear up that contract and sign a standard "employee" contract that would let them interfere with the game.The Refusal: Patrice reportedly asked his girlfriend, "Do I want to be the guy who bent over or not?" He refused to sign away his creative freedom.The Result: Because he wouldn't submit to their control, Ubisoft fired him for "failure to align visions" and had security escort him out. When Ubisoft fired Patrice (again) in 2013, they didn't just let him go. Security guards reportedly escorted him out of the building immediately, preventing him from saying goodbye to his team or collecting his personal belongings.The "Indefinite" Limbo: They didn't cancel the game initially. They "suspended" it indefinitely. This was a legal loophole to keep the IP rights without actually making the game, effectively holding Patrice's life's work hostage so he couldn't take it elsewhere. He had to sue them for years just to get the right to make his own game.
2016: He won the rights back, after a shit Tom of money and time went by. Ubsofy begrudgingly gave the rights back, and less than 2 years later out of fear or of him doing better than them and out of desperation due to the franchise going down hill, they started making their own copycat version.
**Ubisoft didn't just see a competitor—they saw their ex-creator's playbook.**Immediately after winning the rights back in 2016, Désilets went to a conference (Reboot Develop) and showed the original prototype footage to the public. That footage showed the character controlling ravens and rats
2016 till now: After winning the rights in 2016, Patrice shocked everyone by not making the game immediately. He said he needed to build his new studio (Panache) with a smaller project first (Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey). [1, 2]
For the last ~8 years, the game was effectively "dormant." People assumed it might never happen.
Many fans theorized that 1666 was what Assassin's Creed would have become if Patrice hadn't left—a game that leaned harder into supernatural mystery (like the Apple of Eden) rather than the RPG-stats focus Ubisoft later adopted with Origins and Odyssey.
Yannis Mallat's Quote: The CEO of Ubisoft Montreal said at the time, "Putting aside our past differences, Patrice and I are above all interested in the creation of videogames." It was a cold, lawyer-drafted statement that lacked any warmth or genuine support.
In summary: Ubisoft likely feels outmaneuvered. They spent years trying to bury this game, only for it to rise from the grave exactly when it could do the most damage to their own upcoming witch-themed Assassin's Creed.