Ubisoft and Nintendo formed a partnership in the 2010s and early 2020s, resulting in 2017’s crossover RPG Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and its 2022 sequel. According to a new report, Ubisoft didn’t want the partnership to be done there: Ubisoft Milan was reportedly working on a The Legend of Zelda spinoff game before Nintendo passed on the project.
Insider Gaming reported that Ubisoft Milan, co-developer of the Mario + Rabbids games, once pitched Nintendo on “an original Zelda spinoff starring a previously unknown protagonist.” It called the project Goliath, “a name that reflected the scale of what Ubisoft Milan aimed to develop.” Nintendo gave it the initial greenlight, but wanted Ubisoft to make Ganondorf the player character instead. The villainous Ganondorf is as essential to The Legend of Zelda series as Link and Zelda are, but is only playable in spinoff games like Hyrule Warriors and in the Super Smash Bros. games.
Ubisoft Milan worked throughout the year on a prototype, but Nintendo rejected that prototype in November. “The reasons for [Nintendo’s] decision remain unclear,” Insider Gaming said. It’s also not clear what that prototype looked like or what type of game it would have been.
Ubisoft Milan wanted to work on other Nintendo franchises
After Nintendo put an end to the Ganondorf spinoff, Ubisoft Milan pivoted. According to rumors, the studio sought to work on other Nintendo IP, like another game starring Mario characters or a Star Fox game. (Nintendo announced and released its own new Star Fox game this year after the character’s appearance in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.)
However, “conversations between Nintendo and Ubisoft began to break down” in late 2023 and into early 2024, though it’s not clear why exactly those conversations dissolved. Ubisoft Milan’s team was split up, and some developers even went to work on Beyond Good and Evil 2, which just showed surprising signs of life. A contingent of developers went on to form Day 4 Night, which is developing the upcoming Bradley the Badger.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo has canned a Zelda spinoff. Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios once worked on a spinoff game starring Sheik about the origins of the Master Sword, but it was “a hot mess,” according to a developer on it.
While Zelda fans won’t be playing as Ganondorf in his own spinoff anytime soon, they will be playing a new Zelda game by the end of the year. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a remake of the Nintendo 64 classic, is due out on Nintendo Switch 2 on Nov. 5.