Has Assassin’s creator defected to THQ?

The creator of Ubisoft’s blockbuster Assassin’s Creed franchise has left the publisher, according to reports.

Patrice Désilets devised the franchise and exec produced both games in the series and oversaw the beginning of follow-up Brotherhood. He had previously worked on a number of Montreal projects including Prince of Persia.

"With his role on project essentially done, Patrice Désilets has decided to take a creative break from the industry and is no longer working on Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood," the publisher told Game Informer.

It’s been suggested by Kotaku that Désilets has actually been poached by THQ’s new Montreal studio, which means that ‘creative break’ might just be the usual corporate code for gardening leave (which in itself is code for when a resigning employee is asked to work away from the office to limit the spread of confidential material. Ahem).