A Ubisoft executive who resigned earlier this month following a string of sexual misconduct allegations nixed an ambitious title from a renowned designer because he didn’t like the fantasy genre, according to a new report.
After Ubisoft hired Dragon Age designer Mike Laidlaw in 2018, he went to work on a new fantasy game code-named Avalon that centered on King Arthur and his Round Table, Bloomberg is reporting, citing sources who recounted the events. Before Laidlaw got too far, Ubisoft’s former chief creative officer Serge Hascoët canceled the title because he didn’t believe fantasy genre games could work unless they were “better than Tolkien,” Bloomberg’s sources said.
Hascoët, who rose to power after shepherding both the Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry series, wielded near-complete creative control at Ubisoft and could single-handedly decide which games would be green-lit and which concepts were shelved, the report says.
A Ubisoft spokesperson said the company does “not comment on canceled projects.”
After Hascoët initially nixed Laidlaw’s concept, the developer and his team worked for months last year to win the creative officer’s blessing, said Bloomberg’s sources. To appeal to Hascoët’s artistic sensibilities, Laidlaw tried shifting the game’s focus to science fiction and then Greek mythology and believed the game’s focus on cooperative multiplayer would work well, the report says.
Hascoët, however, disagreed and ultimately made the final decision to cancel the game last fall, according to Bloomberg. Because Hascoët apparently ruled as the single creative decision-maker inside Ubisoft — an outlier among studios that typically use several creative managers to ensure a wider breadth of game themes — Laidlaw and his team had nowhere to turn.
Hascoët’s decision may have been one of his last big ones. He resigned earlier this month after he faced several sexual misconduct allegations. His departure was part of a raft of Ubisoft resignations after a recent investigation revealed a longstanding culture of sexual abuse, harassment, and sexism at the studio. CEO Yves Guillemot said Ubisoft would address the allegations in a statement accompanying Hascoët’s departure.
“Ubisoft has fallen short in its obligation to guarantee a safe and inclusive workplace environment for its employees,” Guillemot said in a statement. “This is unacceptable, as toxic behaviors are in direct contrast to values on which I have never compromised — and never will. I am committed to implementing profound changes across the company to improve and strengthen our workplace culture.”
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.