Eric Baptizat has left Ubisoft after 16 years to join EA Motive.
Baptizat is a seasoned game designer and director. He is partly responsible for rebooting the Assassin's Creed franchise after taking the role of the lead designer for Assassin's Creed Origins. As a result, the series has taken a turn towards a more open-world hack-and-slash action RPG gameplay instead of the predominantly stealth-focused playstyle of the earlier games.
Baptizat would later serve as the director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which went on to become the best-selling game in the series. Ubisoft Loses Another One of Its Key Contributors Baptizat's had a senior role in Origins, which is largely credited for helping the Assassin's Creed series remain successful.
It's normal for gaming companies, or any company for that matter, to lose key personnel. However, for it to happen in quick succession does seem worrying.
For all of the game's success, the development cycle of Valhalla has been anything but normal. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is partly to blame for all the disruption, it doesn't explain the number of high-profile members of the development team leaving. While some were forced out, such as former creative director, Ashraf Ismail, due to sexual misconduct charges, others left the studio according to their own volition.