Assassin’s Creed Shadows dev claims “half the team” has never made a game before

Tenured Assassin’s Creed developer Marc-Alexis Côté has gone on record to claim that “half the team” working on Shadows has never made a game before, let alone one of this scope.

The lead-up to AC Shadows has certainly been a troubled one. From one controversy to the next, Ubisoft can’t seem to catch a break, even leading to a delay into 2025 for the next major entry in the beloved franchise.

Many vocal naysayers across social media are often eager to tear the upcoming game down, and now, a high-ranking Ubisoft dev has added fuel to their fire.

Speaking as a featured panelist at the External Development Summit 2024, back in September, 2024, as spotted by Insider Gaming, Vice President Executive Producer Marc-Alexis Côté claimed around half of the Shadows dev team is rather inexperienced.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t be great until it’s great

Having been with Ubisoft for close to two decades, Côté has been through all the highs and lows of game development time and again. When asked how to effectively communicate with both internal and external devs on a given project, he first outlined how “building games is hard, we need to be honest about that.”

“A game is sh** until it’s good, that’s something I think we’ve all experienced,” Côté continued.

This context is crucial as he then went on to explain how Ubisoft currently has “a lot of juniors on our teams.” These more entry-level developers haven’t exactly experienced that cycle Côté referenced, wherein, a game comes together closer to the end of the pipeline.

“Probably half the team that’s building an Assassin’s Creed is building a game for the first time. They don’t know. You have to explain to them, even though they’re playing the game right now and they think it’s the worst thing they’ve ever seen, it’s going to be good. We’re gonna get there.

“I remember my first time on Assassin’s Creed. It was July and the game was shipping in October. I was like ‘There’s no way this thing ends up shipping.” Of course, that particular AC ended up getting over 90 on Metacritic, Côté said with a laugh. “It’s not good until it is.”

Côté’s full comments can be heard at the 45:53 mark below.

Given the scope of AC Shadows, set to be one of the biggest entries in the series with dual protagonists, it’s entirely likely the game has thousands of developers toiling away on it right now.

It’s also apparent fresher employees might not think it’s in the best shape just yet, but as Côté outlined, that’s often the case. In no way, shape, or form is the seasoned Producer indicating Shadows won’t be a worthwhile iteration, despite earlier reporting implying as much.

Ubisoft has also reportedly lost roughly 1,700 employees since 2022, many from layoffs, others from natural attrition. The company today has a head count of around 19,000 employees. Given the burn rate, it therefore also lends credence to Côté’s claim, as fresher, cheaper staff members join on to fill positions.