Ubisoft Milan, the studio famous for the turn-based Mario + Rabbids series, reportedly came within striking distance of producing a The Legend of Zelda spin-off starring the franchise’s most notorious villain, Ganondorf — only for Nintendo to ultimately pull the plug on the ambitious project. According to a new report from Insider Gaming, the collaboration began in earnest in 2022, shortly after the release of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, and evolved into a high-stakes creative gamble that ended in a quiet breakup between the two companies.
The story, as detailed in the report, traces back to co-creator Davide Soliani, who reportedly carried considerably greater ambitions for this iteration of the partnership. Ubisoft Milan spent the winter of 2022 developing what the team considered the perfect pitch for “Project Goliath,” a brand-new Zelda spin-off built around an original character rather than any established hero. Nintendo, the report claims, initially warmed to the concept — but then issued a pivotal counter-request: swap out the proposed protagonist for Link’s archnemesis, Ganondorf himself.
A Prototype Rejected and a Vision Reimagined
Work reportedly continued after Nintendo’s condition, with the studio reshaping the game around the dark, tyrannical sorcerer who has haunted the Zelda series for decades. Yet the partnership did not survive the creative overhaul. In November 2023, Nintendo rejected Ubisoft Milan’s prototype, transforming what had been a promising collaboration into a “what-could-have-been.” The report is candid about the limits of its knowledge, noting that the precise reasoning behind the rejection “remain unclear” — a common reality in the gaming industry, where leaked accounts rarely capture the full strategic calculus behind a publisher’s decisions.
Ubisoft Milan, the studio behind the acclaimed Mario + Rabbids games, reportedly came close to making a Zelda spin-off starring the series’ biggest villain, Ganondorf, instead of regular protagonist Link — but an initially receptive Nintendo eventually pulled the plug on the whole thing.
Insider Gaming
The fallout extended well beyond a single cancelled game. According to the report, another project based on a Nintendo intellectual property was subsequently floated, with speculation ranging from a new Star Fox title to yet another Mario spin-off. But “between late 2023 and early 2024, conversations between Nintendo and Ubisoft began to break down,” effectively ending the relationship. With the project dead, members of the team were reportedly dispersed across the wider Ubisoft organization to work on other assignments.
A Veteran Walks Away and a New Studio Rises
Among those affected was Davide Soliani, a 25-year Ubisoft veteran at the time, who made the decision to leave the publisher and establish his own studio, Day 4 Night. His departure underscores a broader theme running through the report: the creative friction that can emerge when a beloved franchise meets the commercial realities of a series whose sales have not matched expectations. Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope reportedly sold modestly relative to its predecessor, a figure that may have shaped Nintendo’s cautious stance heading into the next collaboration.
Meanwhile, Ubisoft Milan has since redirected its energies, reportedly collaborating with Ubisoft Montpellier on the promising Rayman Legends Untold. The studio appears to be rebuilding its portfolio around its own IP rather than relying on Nintendo partnerships — a strategic pivot that reflects the shifting landscape of third-party development.
Looking Ahead
As for Ganondorf, his dreams of starring in his own Zelda spin-off remain unfulfilled. Whether Nintendo might revisit the idea in some other place and time is impossible to say, but the episode serves as a reminder of how quickly creative momentum can evaporate when the relationship between a developer and a publisher unravels. For fans of the Mario + Rabbids series, the story is a bittersweet footnote — a near-miss with a Zelda game that could have introduced one of gaming’s most iconic villains to a fresh, turn-based format. For the industry, it is another cautionary tale about the fragile nature of IP collaborations and the human cost that can accompany a project’s cancellation.
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