Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Hexe has lost yet another key leader, with game director Benoit Richer leaving the company to co-found a new indie studio, Servo Games, in Quebec. It’s the second director-level exit tied to Hexe in just a few months, and it lands at a moment when the project is already shrouded in mystery—and increasingly, questions about stability. For a game positioned as a “unique, darker, narrative-driven” pivot for the franchise, this kind of leadership churn is the last thing Ubisoft needs.
What Happened: Benoit Richer Leaves to Co-Found Servo Games
Benoit Richer—most recently game director on Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe—has left Ubisoft and is now co-founding Servo Games, a new independent studio based in Quebec. Richer confirmed the move on LinkedIn and will serve as game director at the new studio.
Servo Games is being formed with several industry veterans in leadership roles: Luc Tremblay (president, creative director, and director of technology), Alex Drouin (animation director), and Dany Marcoux (art director), alongside Richer.
Richer’s history with Ubisoft runs deep. He began at Ubisoft Montréal in 2001 as a level designer, later worked at Electronic Arts, spent six years at WB Games Montréal, and then returned to Ubisoft Montréal as a game director—where he ultimately led work on Codename Hexe.
Why This Matters: Hexe Has Now Lost Multiple High-Profile Leads
The headline here isn’t just that a veteran developer is striking out on their own—good for Richer, genuinely. The issue is the timing and the pattern.
Hexe has now seen multiple major departures tied to its leadership:
- Clint Hocking, the game’s creative director, left Ubisoft in February following the company’s restructuring plan.
- Benoit Richer, the game’s game director, has now departed to co-found Servo Games.
- Earlier, in October, former franchise lead Marc-Alexis Côté left the project. He later filed a lawsuit against Ubisoft alleging “constructive dismissal” after the Assassin’s Creed brand was transferred to Tencent-backed Vantage Studios.
That’s a lot of institutional knowledge and decision-making power walking out the door around the same project. Leadership changes happen in game development—sometimes for perfectly healthy reasons—but back-to-back director-level exits are disruptive by definition. Even when a project survives the turbulence, it often pays a price in momentum, cohesion, and clarity of vision.
And Hexe is not a “business as usual” Assassin’s Creed. It’s been framed internally and publicly as something different: darker, more narrative-driven, and thematically distinct. Those are exactly the kinds of games that live or die on strong creative alignment.
Where Hexe Stands: “Darker,” Narrative-Driven, and Still Mostly Under Wraps
Officially, Ubisoft announced Codename Hexe in 2022, but concrete details remain scarce. The most direct on-the-record framing comes from Jean Guesdon, Assassin’s Creed head of content, who has said the game is:
“being built with great care by our veteran team here at Ubisoft Montreal. Expect a unique, darker, narrative-driven Assassin’s Creed experience, set during a pivotal moment in history.”
Following Hocking’s departure, Guesdon was appointed as the new creative director on the project.
Beyond that, Hexe has been widely associated with witchcraft/arcane themes, and recent reporting points to internal shifts around gameplay direction. A fresh leak suggests magical abilities have been removed from the upcoming witchcraft-themed Assassin’s Creed Hexe—an intriguing claim, and one that would meaningfully change what many fans assumed Hexe’s “hook” might be.
There’s also been chatter from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson that developers had planned for Ezio to appear at some point and teach the protagonist “the way of the Assassin’s,” though whether that idea remains in play is unknown.
The big picture: Hexe is still more concept than concrete to the public. That makes leadership changes feel even louder, because there’s no gameplay showcase, no deep-dive trailer, no feature list to reassure fans that the vision is locked.
The Bigger Ubisoft Context: Restructuring, Vantage Studios, and a Franchise in Flux
It’s impossible to separate this story from Ubisoft’s wider Assassin’s Creed machine right now—because the franchise is in the middle of a complicated transition.
One major thread is Vantage Studios, which is described as Tencent-backed and is now involved in development of multiple Ubisoft properties, including Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has recently stated that Hexe is one of several games being developed at Vantage Studios, alongside Far Cry.
At the same time, Ubisoft is pushing forward with a remake strategy. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is now officially real and launches July 9, 2026. And beyond that, reliable leaker chatter suggests Ubisoft’s next remake could be the original Assassin’s Creed—a game that, notably, is described as the only mainline entry currently unplayable on modern consoles. There’s no official announcement for an Assassin’s Creed 1 remake yet, and no confirmed release date, but the rumor mill is spinning.
So while Hexe is dealing with leadership turnover and leaks about feature changes, Ubisoft is also juggling:
- a major Black Flag remake release this summer,
- rumored additional remakes,
- and a broader restructuring of how its biggest franchises are organized and built.
That’s a lot of plates in the air. And when plates start wobbling, projects that are still early, still experimental, or still undefined tend to feel it first.
What Remains Unknown
- Who replaces Benoit Richer as game director on Assassin’s Creed Hexe, and whether Ubisoft will announce that leadership change publicly.
- How far along Hexe is in development, and whether these departures will impact its timeline.
- Whether the leak about magical abilities being removed reflects a finalized design decision or an iteration that could still change.
- Hexe’s platforms, release window, and pricing, none of which have been confirmed here.
- How Vantage Studios’ involvement concretely affects Hexe’s development structure and decision-making compared to Ubisoft Montréal’s role.
For now, Hexe remains one of the most fascinating—and increasingly most concerning—projects in Ubisoft’s pipeline: a promised darker Assassin’s Creed with big ambitions, now facing the kind of behind-the-scenes shakeups that can either forge a stronger game… or quietly unravel it.
