Ubisoft reportedly fire Assassin’s Creed designer who spoke out publicly against return-to-office, as union reps call for CEO to resign

An Assassin’s Creed designer who publicly spoke out against Ubisoft’s return-to-office mandate claims the company have now fired him. Developer David Michaud-Cromp posted on LinkedIn last week that he’d been put on unpaid disciplinary leave after recently criticising the policy change on the social media platform.

If you’re out of the loop, Ubisoft have recently revealed plans to push remote staff back into offices amid a bloodbath of game cancellations, restructuring and voluntary redundancies. The company intend to have employees return to working in-office five days a week, with an annual allowance of work-from-home days. All of these moves have understandably not gone down well with French unions, who’ve subsequently called strike action.

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The Division: Definitive Edition Quietly Launches — But It’s Not the Remaster Some Had Hoped For

Ubisoft is yet to formally announce its Tom Clancy’s The Division: Definitive Edition, but you can now purchase it via the Xbox store. Unfortunately, however, its release has confirmed exactly what this new version of the game entails — and it’s not the remake or remaster that some fans had expected.

On Xbox at least, you can now pay $49.99 to own Ubisoft’s 2016 extraction shooter and all of its add-on content, including the game’s three expansions, season pass, and various DLC outfits.

There does not appear to be any new content here — or any new versions of existing content, either. This has come as something of a surprise to fans who had spotted advertising for the game’s Definitive Edition pop up last month alongside new merchandise, just in time for the game’s 10th anniversary.

Instead, for your money you’ll get access to the following Tom Clancy’s The Division items:

  • Tom Clancy’s The Division
  • Season Pass
  • Season Pass Exclusive Outfits
  • Expansion I: Underground
  • Expansion II: Survival
  • Expansion III: Last Stand
  • Sawed-off Shotgun
  • Frontline Outfit Pack
  • Let it Snow Pack
  • Military Specialists Outfits Pack
  • Parade Pack
  • Sports Fan Outfit Pack
  • Streets of New York Outfit Bundle
  • Marine Forces Outfits Pack
  • Upper East Side Outfit Pack

“Get the complete The Division experience in this Definitive Edition!” Ubisoft’s blurb reads. “The base game, all three Season Pass expansions, and multiple cosmetic packs await you. Restore order and rebuild New York City after a devastating pandemic in this tactical open world third-person shooter.

“The Definitive Edition also includes gear sets, weapon skins, and customization options, everything you need to stand out as an elite agent.”

Two years on from its announcement, Ubisoft is still working on The Division 3. And while it has yet to show off the game or provide us with a release date, its now-departed chief developer Julian Gerighty has said he believes it will have as big an impact as The Division 1 did back in the day.

“So, The Division 3 is in production, right? This is not a secret. It’s been announced. It’s shaping up to be a monster,” Gerighty said. “I can’t really say anything more than that. But this is, within these walls in Massive, we are working extremely hard on something that I think will be as big an impact as Division 1 was.”

Last month, Ubisoft announced the cancelation of six games, the closure of two studios and further job losses at another three locations, and a cost-reduction initiative aimed at eliminating 200 positions at its Paris headquarters. Of the half dozen games that were scrapped, Ubisoft only publicly named one — its long-awaited Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Civilization 7’s big Test of Time update that’ll bring back playing as one civ for the whole game is set to drop this spring

As any Civ player knows, time has a habit of passing. Next week, Civ 7 will turn a year old. It’s been a year of regular additions and tweaks following the mixed initial reception to Firaxis’ attempt to do something different with their grant strategy behemoth. Fitting, then, that the devs have rung in that first birthday by revealing when they’re hoping to drop some big changes that’ll have “major implications” for Civ 7.

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Metroid Prime 4 & Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Imprisonment Sales Get Off To A Slow Start

One in a million.

Nintendo’s latest financial report is in, giving us the official sales numbers for all of its best-selling games as of 31st December 2025. We already highlighted the best-sellers, in fact, but we couldn’t help but notice that both Metroid Prime 4: Beyond — in either its Switch 1 or Switch 2 editions — and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment were missing from the list.

We don’t have concrete sales numbers for either of the three releases there (counting Metroid Prime 4’s two editions separately), but what we do know is that none of them exceeded one million sales by the time the year was up.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake Collectible Dagger Looks to Have Popped Up in an Unboxing Video, Days After Game’s Cancelation

An unboxing video that purportedly reveals a Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake collectible dagger has been shared online, with fans pointing to the footage as further evidence that the project was nearing completion when recently canceled by Ubisoft.

The two-minute video was originally uploaded to YouTube last week, though remained unlisted and not widely-seen until it was later shared via social media.

The video is labelled as showing an unreleased “press kit” — a promotional item typically sent to media and influencers to generate hype. Housed within a wooden box with the game’s logo, what appears to be a replica of the infamous Dagger of Time comes encased in foam and packaged with a display stand. (The dagger itself looks to be made of resin, so won’t be cutting anything anytime soon.)

While the item doesn’t tell us much more about the game itself, other than how the Dagger of Time might have looked, the item’s appearance now has prompted further questions from fans over how close Ubisoft was to releasing the game at the point that it was canceled. IGN has contacted Ubisoft for comment, but did not receive a response.

Last week, actress Eman Ayaz — who is widely-believed to have been playing the major role of Farah — said she had “filmed marketing” for the project as recently as November last year, and had now lost three years’ worth of work due to the game being scrapped. “Sadly the entertainment industry isn’t just about entertainment,” Ayaz said, “it’s about guaranteeing a cash flow. And that means making decisions that treat people’s lives as collateral damage, and art as disposable content… This project existed, even if the world never got to see it.

Ubisoft confirmed it had canned the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake last month as part of a wider reorganization that featured layoffs at three development studios, the closure of two more, and the shutdown of five other game projects. A swathe of other, unnamed games were also delayed — reportedly including Ubisoft’s unconfirmed but widely-expected Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remake.

Last week, a collectible figurine believed to be set to launch alongside the Black Flag remake also popped up online, as someone tried to sell the item via used clothing app Vinted. Ubisoft, seemingly unable to deny the remake’s existence any longer, then responded online with a GTA meme.

For its part, Ubisoft told Prince of Persia fans that despite six years of work, its Sands of Time remake was still too far away from being ready to fund any further. “We weren’t able to reach the level of quality you deserve,” the company said in a statement, “and continuing would have required more time and investment than we could responsibly commit.”

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

Valheim developers celebrate the game’s fifth anniversary with flower garlands, sweetbread, and Steam Deck optimisations

I’m going to a toddler’s birthday party on Saturday and I have it on good authority from Alva’s dad that there will be trays of sandwiches and a couple of cakes from M&S. There is no booze provided. I’m not sure if that’s because there should be no booze consumed at a two-year-old’s birthday, or only that we should bring our own. I guess I’ll find out for sure if they frisk on the door. However, if Valheim‘s latest anniversary update is anything to go by, I am now looking forward to Alva’s fifth birthday.

To mark five years in Early Access, developer Iron Gate have released an anniversary patch that is a damn sight better than the prospect of watching a sad looking Colin the Caterpillar cake getting pawed at by hungry toddlers. There are flower garlands, mysterious axe heads, and a steady 60 fps on Steam Deck performance mode. Who doesn’t want mysterious blades at a birthday party?

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“This shouldn’t have happened”: GOG reportedly claim sale banner made with “Al tools” ended up on store by mistake

After being accused last week of using AI-generated artwork to promote their store’s new year sale, retro game sellers GOG have reportedly addressed the issue in a private Discord server for paying supporters. According to this fresh response from a GOG staffer, the banner was made “with the help of Al tools” and was “mistakenly allowed” to be pushed live on the storefront.

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Here’s A Look At The Best-Selling Switch And Switch 2 Games So Far

Pokémon Legends: Z-A surpasses 12 million.

As part of its latest financial report, Nintendo has showcased the best-selling Switch and Switch 2 games so far.

There are only a handful of games to peruse from the Switch 2, with Metroid Prime 4: Beyond conspicuously absent. In fact, Nintendo has not made mention of Retro Studios’ latest in any capacity regarding sales data, so it seems likely that it’s failed to reach 1 million sales on either the Switch or Switch 2. Combined sales may tell a different story, but it’s definitely not a good look for the game.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Dispatch Uncensored Physical Switch Release Apparently Not Possible

And AdHoc can’t comment on why separate regional releases didn’t happen.

The release of the superhero workplace comedy game Dispatch on Switch and Switch 2 hasn’t exactly panned out as expected.

In case you somehow missed it, there has been a lot of back-and-forth over the past week about censorship in the Nintendo versions of the game. It resulted in the developer AdHoc Studio sharing multiple comments, and even Nintendo issued a formal statement.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com