Ubisoft may have cancelled an Assassin’s Creed game that would have taken the franchise to one of China’s most turbulent historical periods. Newly surfaced screenshots and concept material from Assassin’s Creed Destiny offer a glimpse of a project that was reportedly in development before Ubisoft’s recent restructuring brought it to an end.
The game would have been set in 205 BCE, during the collapse of China’s Qin Dynasty. It was reportedly being developed with TiMi, the Tencent-owned studio, before the project was scrapped following a prototype in 2025.
Although the leaked material does not reveal how far the game progressed, it provides a clearer picture of what players may have missed.
Emmanuel Umahi
Assassin’s Creed Destiny would have explored ancient China
The leaked screenshots, reportedly sourced from portfolios belonging to artists associated with the project, show detailed weapon designs and environments that point towards another historical adventure built around the franchise’s familiar mix of stealth, combat, and political conflict.
An accompanying video reportedly shows a female assassin searching for a mysterious artifact inside a besieged palace. The footage also features Xiang Yu, the ancient Chinese military leader who emerged during the power struggle following the collapse of the Qin Dynasty.
Xiang Yu was reportedly planned as an early boss character, suggesting that historical figures would have featured in the story, as they have in previous Assassin’s Creed games.
The setting also offered Ubisoft an opportunity to explore a period of Chinese history shaped by warfare and competing claims to power. The Qin Dynasty unified China in 221 BCE but collapsed in 206 BCE, leaving a power vacuum that helped bring Xiang Yu and Liu Bang into conflict.
That historical backdrop could have given the game a distinct identity, particularly if Ubisoft had built its story around the struggle for control following the dynasty’s collapse. However, the available material is not enough to establish the full storyline, the scale of the open world, or the gameplay systems planned for the finished game.
Why did Ubisoft cancel Assassin’s Creed Destiny?
The reported cancellation came amid a wider period of restructuring at Ubisoft, which has cut jobs, reassessed projects, and made changes to games already in development. The publisher has previously laid off hundreds of employees across multiple studios.
According to the reporting surrounding the leak, Assassin’s Creed Destiny was being developed in collaboration with TiMi. The studio announced a restructuring after the project’s 2025 prototype, and the game was subsequently scrapped.
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