A report from Game File indicates that Ubisoft reportedly halted development on an Assassin`s Creed title last year. The game was set during the American Civil War and the subsequent Reconstruction period (1860s-1870s), a setting deemed too sensitive for the franchise`s player base.
Still in its early development stages when canceled, the game would have featured a Black protagonist. This character, having escaped enslavement and built a new life outside the South, would eventually join the Assassins. His journey would then lead him back to the South, where he would challenge notorious racist organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan.
Sources cited by Game File suggest the cancellation was a reaction to public outcry following the announcement of Yasuke, a Black samurai, as a protagonist in Assassin`s Creed Shadows, coupled with the tense political climate in the U.S. Developers involved in the project reportedly expressed disappointment, feeling that Ubisoft succumbed to what they considered undue controversy.
This isn`t Ubisoft`s first foray into North American historical settings for Assassin`s Creed. Assassin`s Creed 3, for instance, immersed players in the 18th-century American Revolution, exploring locations like Boston, New York City, and the frontier. That installment featured two main characters, including a half-Indigenous Assassin motivated by a quest for vengeance for his mother`s death.