Ubisoft’s Rejected Zelda Spin-Off with Ganondorf Led to Studio Exodus

In the years following the success of Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and its sequel Sparks of Hope, Nintendo and Ubisoft had formed an unexpectedly productive creative partnership. The collaboration suggested both companies could work together successfully on major franchise properties. That relationship, however, appears to have quietly ended following the rejection of a major Legend of Zelda spin-off project. According to a September 2024 report by Insider Gaming, the cancelled game—originally codenamed Goliath and centered on the villain Ganondorf—became the catalyst for a breakdown in collaboration that ultimately led key developers to depart Ubisoft and form their own studio.

How Ubisoft Milan Pitched a Zelda Spin-Off

Following the solid performance of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope in 2023, Ubisoft Milan moved to strengthen its partnership with Nintendo. The studio proposed creating a substantial new title: a Legend of Zelda universe spin-off with an original cast. The game would introduce a completely new protagonist to the franchise, offering a different angle on the world players had explored across decades of Nintendo releases. Pitched to Nintendo in early 2023 with the internal codename Goliath, the project represented a significant creative undertaking and demonstrated Ubisoft’s ambition to expand its collaborative relationship with the company.

Nintendo’s Direction for Ganondorf

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Nintendo expressed interest in the core concept but steered the project in a different direction. The company proposed that rather than introducing an original character, the spin-off should center on Ganondorf—the franchise’s primary antagonist and one of gaming’s most iconic villains appearing across multiple Legend of Zelda games. This suggestion transformed the project’s scope, shifting from creating something entirely new to exploring an existing character from an unprecedented angle. With Nintendo’s vision set, Ubisoft Milan assembled a development team under the leadership of Davide Soliani, a veteran developer who had worked on the Mario + Rabbids games and brought considerable experience to the venture. The team received a compressed development timeline: the prototype needed completion by the end of 2023.

Development, Presentation, and the Rejection

Building the Prototype

Soliani and his team worked within the demanding schedule to build a playable prototype demonstrating their interpretation of a Ganondorf-led adventure within the Zelda universe. While details about the prototype’s specific design—its mechanics, narrative approach, or artistic direction—were not disclosed in reporting, the team successfully delivered a complete, functional prototype that met the end-of-year deadline. The work required coordination across multiple disciplines within the studio.

Nintendo’s Evaluation

In November 2023, the finished prototype went before Nintendo for official review and evaluation. The submission represented months of focused development effort and embodied Ubisoft’s interpretation of Nintendo’s creative direction. Nintendo ultimately rejected the prototype. Critically, the company did not provide detailed feedback on the decision or concrete suggestions for revision. The reasons for the rejection have not been publicly disclosed and reportedly remain unexplained to Ubisoft, leaving the studio unable to understand what specific aspects of the work did not align with Nintendo’s expectations or quality standards.

Attempts to Salvage the Partnership

The cancellation of the Zelda project did not immediately terminate Ubisoft’s efforts to maintain momentum with Nintendo. The company pivoted its strategy and began proposing alternative games based on other Nintendo intellectual properties. Among the pitches were a Star Fox title and additional games set within the Mario universe, indicating that Ubisoft had developed or was actively conceptualizing multiple projects in parallel. These efforts failed to revive the relationship or generate renewed interest. By early 2024, communication between the two companies had ceased entirely. The once-productive dialogue transformed into silence, with no indication of further collaboration or discussion about future projects.

Departure of Key Developers

The failed Zelda project and the subsequent communication breakdown created visible and lasting consequences within Ubisoft Milan’s development division. Several developers central to the prototype’s creation chose to leave the company, unable to find satisfying projects elsewhere in the studio. In July 2024—seven months after the prototype’s rejection—Davide Soliani, Cristina Nava, and Gian Marco Zanna departed from Ubisoft. When discussing their exit in interviews, the three cited the cancellation of the ambitious project as a primary reason for their decision to move on to new ventures. The gap between the November 2023 rejection and July 2024 departures suggests the developers spent months attempting to find other opportunities within the company before concluding that their future lay outside Ubisoft.

Formation of Day 4 Night and Bradley the Badger

Rather than seeking employment at established studios, Soliani, Nava, and Zanna chose to build their own company from the ground up. They founded Day 4 Night, an independent studio positioned to focus on original game development without the constraints of working under a major publisher. The studio’s first project, Bradley the Badger, is a platformer that has already generated considerable interest within gaming communities for its distinctive visual presentation and engaging gameplay design. The project represents both a creative fresh start for the three developers and a demonstration of their determination to create games after the cancellation of their Zelda work at Ubisoft prevented them from seeing an ambitious project through to completion.