Ubisoft Cancels Civil War Assassin’s Creed: Project Obsidian

There was a post-Civil War Assassin’s Creed in development—and this is why Ubisoft cancelled it. Ubisoft has apparently cancelled an Assassin’s Creed set in post-Civil War America, a place fans have been clamoring for since Assassin’s Creed III. Internally titled Project Obsidian, the game was supposed to tell a story during the Reconstruction era through the Assassin Brotherhood, featuring turmoil between liberation, revenge, and rebirth.

A hidden chapter that never made it to history

It was part of the Assassin’s Creed Infinity initiative: Ubisoft’s big plan to link multiple stories together into one living entertainment experience. After (official and unofficial) months of internal restructurings, the game was dead. Ubisoft has since poured resources into Codename Red (feudal Japan) and Codename Hexe, which looks like it will be one of the darkest entries in the series.

“It had a fantastic premise, but it was too far behind the current production timeline,” said a developer who worked on the project.

The cancelled game: what we know

The post-Civil War setting would have dropped players in the middle of the Reconstruction era. A time of fractured identity, political instability and racial division.

According to insiders, the main character was mixed race, either a soldier or a veteran returning home - inhabiting spaces in and out of worlds, struggling with moral choices in the aftermath of America’s rebirth. The concept art showed very decayed industrial cities, sun-bleached plantations and a rail system (all powered by the Anvil engine). Imagine Red Dead Redemption vs Assassin’s Creed III (but more grounded, more political and more human).

Gameplay mechanics and design ambitions

Insiders said gameplay would have involved some stealth combat, horseback traversal and rail based exploration. There was a morality system where player’s actions would affect the regional power levels and factions between soldiers, freedmen and underground resistance groups. Ubisoft’s creative teams wanted to go deeper into social consequences - showing how each assassination would create communities and political factions within networks, but at this level of depth it was too complicated to fit into the Infinity framework at this point.

In the end they decided to save their resources for their near term titles rather than overextend their teams.

Why Ubisoft cancelled it

According to internal reports, resource prioritization and team restructuring were the deciding factors.
Ubisoft has been realigning development cycles after a period of overextension, focusing on quality and timely delivery. Codename Red is due in 2025 and is the next big release: make or break for Ubisoft’s live service experiment.

The cancellation follows Ubisoft’s broader post-pandemic cost optimization strategy, which saw multiple unannounced projects cancelled between 2023 and 2024. AAA production costs are rising and margins are shrinking, so experimental titles are under more scrutiny.

Community reaction and fan disappointment

Fans are disappointed but understanding. On Reddit and X (formerly Twitter), threads titled “RIP Project Obsidian” are trending in gaming circles.

Many saw the Reconstruction era as a storytelling goldmine: an opportunity to tackle race, identity, and freedom through a mature lens. “It could have been Assassin’s Creed’s most daring story,” said one fan, echoing a wider sentiment that Ubisoft missed a chance to humanize a pivotal moment in American history. Some fans express their disappointment, citing Assassin's Creed Mirage as an example.

What’s next for the Assassin’s Creed franchise?

Ubisoft’s next big game is Assassin’s Creed Codename Red, set in feudal Japan (the most requested setting in the history of the franchise). You’ll play as two protagonists: a shinobi assassin and a samurai warrior, with stealth, honor, and duality of culture. Then Codename Hexe will move the franchise into psychological horror and a genre experiment with witch trials and paranoia and occult conspiracy themes. Both will be the starting points for Ubisoft’s Infinity platform, which will be the central hub for all future games and live-service updates and crossovers in history.

In other words, the days of standalone Assassin’s Creed games are over. The next era is an evolving world of time periods and characters living together under one evolving experience.

Editorial takeaway

The cancellation of the Civil War-era Assassin’s Creed doesn’t just close a chapter; it also reflects Ubisoft’s broader creative realignment. By narrowing the scope of experimental projects and doubling down on the core vision, the studio is clearly saying a more action-oriented approach for the Assassin’s Creed franchise.

Still, the idea of an Assassin navigating the broken heart of 19th-century America will linger as one of gaming’s most fascinating “what if” stories, a lost timeline that might one day return through the Infinity universe.

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