Ubisoft has seemingly lost another one of its veteran developers as part of its ongoing organizational restructuring following the company's announcement of a "major reset" last month. After learning who would be taking charge of the Assassin's Creed franchise going forward in its new structure yesterday, today we've learned that Clint Hocking, a Ubisoft veteran who was the creative director on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Far Cry 2, Watch Dogs: Legion, and most recently the creative director on the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Hexe project, has left the company.
VGC initially reported Hocking's departure, and when we reached out to Ubisoft to confirm the report, we received the following statement in response:
"Clint Hocking, Creative Director on Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe, will be departing Ubisoft. We sincerely thank him for his vision, creative contributions, and dedication over the years, and we wish him the very best in his next chapter. Development on Assassin’s Creed Codename Hexe continues with a seasoned team. The game will deliver something distinctive within the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Jean Guesdon, Head of Content for the Assassin's Creed brand, is now acting as the Creative Director on the project. We look forward to sharing more information in the future."
Since the Hexe project was announced in 2022 alongside other future AC titles, we've only heard rumours about the upcoming title, and most recently heard that it had been pushed to sometime in 2026. Since the company's major restructuring announced last month, and now Hocking's departure, it seems likely that Hexe is one of the titles that was delayed in the portfolio shifting Ubisoft did, which included cancelling the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake.
Hocking was with Ubisoft across two significant periods in his career. The first was a nine-year stay at the company during which he led development on Far Cry 2 and Chaos Theory as creative director. He left in 2010 to join LucasArts for two years, then Valve for one year, and Amazon Game Studios for one year. He then rejoined Ubisoft in 2015, where he led the Ubisoft Toronto team on Watch Dogs: Legion before joining the Montreal team to work on Hexe.
Hocking may not have been with the Assassin's Creed franchise throughout his whole Ubisoft career, like another recently departed Ubisoft veteran, Marc-Alexis Côté, but as the creative director behind two of the company's most iconic titles, his departure signals how the company's 'reset' continues to include a changing of the old guard, of sorts, at least when it comes to those in major creative roles.
Marc-Alexis Côté, Julian Gerighty, and now Clint Hocking are all senior creative leads, all of whom have led successful projects for Ubisoft, all of whom the company has now lost in this reorganization. While we know that Gerighty left to go work on the Battlefield franchise, it's unclear who will scoop up Hocking and Côté.
Ultimately, in a company as big as Ubisoft, a project's success or failure cannot be laid at the feet of an individual person. That said, it does not bode well to continue seeing people who have stuck with Ubisoft for years look elsewhere in the industry.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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