King Arthur Ubisoft RPG

On paper it sounds amazing: a co-op action role-playing game -- not too dissimilar from Monster Hunter -- set in the knightly times of King Arthur. Codenamed 'Avalon', the project was spearheaded by former Dragon Age designer Mike Laidlaw over at Ubisoft Quebec, but when Laidlaw left the developer back in 2019, 'Avalon' was cancelled soon after.

A new Bloomberg report says that the project received criticism from then Ubisoft chief creative officer Serge Hascoët because he simply didn't like the fantastical setting. Apparently, Hascoët pushed for it to be "better than Tolkien", and the team had to try and deviate from its original Arthurian premise. But by that point, it was already too late.

We'll never know whether Avalon would have been a hit, but the report is rather damning in regards to Hascoët's management of the project. The bottom line is that one executive's taste was enough to sink the entire thing, and, presumably, give Laidlaw reason to leave the company.

Of course, forcing Avalon into the void isn't Hascoët's greatest crime. He was one of the executives who recently departed Ubisoft following reports of sexual misconduct and general workplace toxicity.

Would you have liked to see Avalon make the cut? Think about what might have been in the comments section below.

[source bloomberg.com, via destructoid.com]