Patrice Desilets left Ubisoft. They snagged him back. And now he’s gone again. Ubisoft confirmed news of the departure in a statement to Kotaku today. In a later statement, Desilets said he was fired and plans to “fight Ubisoft vigorously”.
The designer best known for designing the first two Assassin’s Creed games left Ubisoft in 2010. He was working on a game at THQ’s Montreal studio when that publisher dissolved earlier this year. Ubisoft purchased the studio in January, and with it came Desilets. But that didn’t work out.
“The acquisition of THQ Montréal in January allowed Ubisoft to welcome 170 experienced developers, including Patrice Désilets, to our existing and renowned workforce,” a Ubisoft representative said in a statement to Kotaku this afternoon.
“Unfortunately, since the acquisition, the good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice’s and the studio’s visions have been inconclusive. As a result, Patrice has left the studio. Our priorities remain with the teams already hard at work on projects in development. They are at the root of Ubisoft Montréal’s past and future successes.”
At THQ Montreal, Desilets was working on a game called 1666. Ubisoft won’t comment on the fate of that game, but we’ve heard from a couple of different people that it’s been suspended.
UPDATE: Sounds like things are getting interesting. Desilets sent over the following statement:
Contrary to any statements made earlier today, this morning I was terminated by Ubisoft. I was notified of this termination in person, handed a termination notice and was unceremoniously escorted out of the building by two guards without being able to say goodbye to my team or collect my personal belongings.
This was not my decision.
Ubisoft’s actions are baseless and without merit. I intend to fight Ubisoft vigorously for my rights, for my team and for my game.
Comments
11 responses to “Assassin’s Creed Designer Patrice Desilets Says Ubisoft Fired Him”
Look’s like he got stabbed in the back…
I hope he does, this sounds very reminiscent of the whole Infinity Ward fiasco.
Hire him… just so you could fire him again.
Stone cold Ubi… stone cold.
You cant quit! You’re fired!
Hopefully he somehow destroys UPlay and they stop making everyone use that shit.
How this would happen, I do not know, but it’s no less likely than anything else we hope will happen with publishers
After how Assassin’s Creed 3 turned out, they could really use him back in their ranks.
Yeah, I was just thinking, “OK, so this guy designed the first two games, but not the third… did they actually find a replacement, or just wing it?”
the good faith discussions between Patrice and Ubisoft aimed at aligning Patrice’s and the studio’s visions have been inconclusive
Translation: he wasn’t a team player and we fired his ass.
Probably
Given how AC3 turned out from a design standpoint, whatever they were arguing over, he had a point.
Strong chance that they wanted him back on Assassin’s Creed, which is the reason he left in the first place. Despite how much I would like to see what a new Assassin’s Creed would look like under Desliets’ leadership, if he doesn’t want to work on the series any more he should have that option. Who knows? Maybe he could have come up with another game that they could annually exploit?
Isn’t Patrice a girls name?
Patrice should choose his words about Ubisoft carefully or risk a charge of *sunglasses* character assassination.