Canceled Zelda Game Centered Around Ganondorf Was Reportedly in the Works at Ubisoft
A new report claims that Nintendo previously canceled a new entry in The Legend of Zelda franchise that was in development at Ubisoft. Back in 2017, Ubisoft and Nintendo teamed up to release Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle, which was a tactical strategy game featuring characters from the Super Mario and Rabbids universes. Despite being an odd pairing, the game went on to be quite popular with players, which led to it getting a sequel in 2022 called Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope. And while the series hasn’t since continued, it’s now known that Ubisoft tried to continue this partnership with Nintendo by creating a Zelda spin-off centered around franchise antagonist Ganondorf.
According to Insider Gaming, Ubisoft Milan, which is the studio behind the Mario + Rabbids games, began working on a new prototype in early 2023 that it called Goliath. Rather than being associated once again with Super Mario, this new game was instead tied to Zelda. Initially, this Zelda spin-off was said to center on a completely new protagonist in the franchise, but Ubisoft Milan later changed it to feature Ganondorf as the main playable character. Specifics on what the story of Goliath would have revolved around weren’t detailed in this report, but it surely would have been much different from past Zelda titles.
After working on Goliath for the majority of 2023, Ubisoft Milan reportedly pitched the prototype to Nintendo near the end of the year. Sadly, Nintendo ended up denying the pitch for reasons that aren’t clear. In the wake of this cancellation, Ubisoft Milan is said to have considered developing another prototype based on an existing Nintendo IP, but relations between the two companies ended up falling apart at some point in 2023 or 2024, which killed this potential. As a result, many of the leads at Ubisoft Milan, most notably creative director Davide Soliani, ended up departing from the company in 2024.
While it’s saddening to hear that this Ganondorf-centric Zelda game will never see the light of day, it’s fascinating to think about what such a title would have even looked like. Not only could its story have further fleshed out the history of Ganondorf prior to him becoming the primary villain seen throughout the Zelda saga, but it also could have been much different from a gameplay standpoint when compared to the mainline games. Perhaps Nintendo could revisit this idea at some point in the future, but if it does, it almost certainly wouldn’t be through a partnership with Ubisoft.
As for what’s next with Zelda, Nintendo will be releasing its new remake of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Switch 2 in a little over a month on November 5th. Next year, Zelda will also be making its debut on the big screen with the live-action take on the series hits theaters on April 30th.