Four months after the former head of Assassin’s Creed abruptly exited the company after allegedly being forced out, Ubisoft has tapped three veterans of the series who have worked on or led entries like Origins, Black Flag, and Revelations to take charge of the franchise inside its new Tencent-backed home at Vantage Studios.
On February 23, Ubisoft announced that Martin Schelling, Jean Guesdon, and François de Billy are being handed the keys to Assassin’s Creed, the French publisher’s very successful and long-running historical-based open-world stealth action franchise. These three have been connected with Assassin’s Creed for many, many years and have been involved in some of the franchise’s most popular games.
Schelling is now the head of the Assassin’s Creed brand. Ubisoft says he’ll be responsible for the “overall strategy and long-term vision” of the series. Previously, he was Ubisoft’s chief production officer after spending 17 years in various production roles on games like Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla.
François de Billy has been named Assassin’s Creed‘ “Head of Production Excellence,” which is a wild title to put on a resume. François was the production director on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla. Before that, he was an associate producer on Assassin’s Creed 2 and later an executive producer of the brand. Ubisoft says that in this role he will “optimize processes and remove friction across complex production workflows” for the franchise. Sounds like François de Billy is here to help the series avoid delays.
Finally, Jean Guesdon has been named the head of content for Assassin’s Creed. He’ll lead the franchise’s “overall creative direction” while supporting “individual games” and guiding the “future of Assassin’s Creed.” Previously, Guesdon was the creative director on Assassin’s Creed Black Flag and Origins. Interestingly, this is essentially the same role he had at Ubisoft for many years while working on numerous titles.
He previously left Ubisoft for Behaviour Interactive back in 2023. At the time, Kotaku reported he had been leading development on a new, Minecraft-like voxel-based game called “Renaissance” that had yet to be announced. It was described by sources back then as being one of the more promising IPs incubating within Ubisoft at the time, with the possibility of appealing to existing fans of franchises like The Sims and Animal Crossing. But it later became a casualty of Ubisoft’s ongoing development struggles, especially around creating new IP.
Ubisoft has multiple Assassin’s Creed games in development
Schelling, de Billy, and Guesdon are now set to fill a void created by recent departures, including Marc-Alexis Côté’s break with the company in 2025 after leading Assassin’s Creed for nearly 20 years. He is suing the publisher for a forced dismissal, but Ubisoft claims he was offered a leadership role at Vantage Studios and declined it.
It is very clear that Ubisoft leadership wants to ensure that arguably its biggest, most important franchise continues to be popular and grow. In recent years, the series has struggled to tell a larger meta-narrative and ship on time. There have also been plans to intertwine future installments as part of a larger initiative, but those plans have so far seemed half-baked. 2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows was a big hit for Ubisoft, helping keep the company afloat as it limped towards a massive buyout with Tencent.
The ramifications of that deal have been lots of layoffs and cancelled projects. It has also created new co-owned subsidiaries, like Vantage Studios, that are now in charge of Ubisoft’s big franchises like Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed. In a recent interview with Variety, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot said there are multiple Assassin’s Creed games, including both multiplayer and single-player titles, currently in development. One of those is the previously reported Black Flag remake.
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