{"id":860173,"date":"2026-09-25T13:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/860173\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T13:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T13:00:16","slug":"nintendo-reportedly-rejected-a-ubisoft-zelda-spin-off-starring-ganondorf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/860173\/","title":{"rendered":"Nintendo Reportedly Rejected A Ubisoft Zelda Spin-Off Starring Ganondorf"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ganondorf<\/a> Image: Nintendo<\/p>\n

A new “exclusive” report from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson<\/a> has supposedly lifted the lid on a Ubisoft Zelda<\/a> project that never saw the light of day.<\/p>\n

The story, which is based on “reporting conducted over more than 18 months” and has been “independently corroborated”, claims Ubisoft Milan (the Mario + Rabbids<\/a> studio) pitched a Zelda spin-off featuring a “previously unknown protagonist”. Nintendo apparently liked the concept but told Ubisoft to replace the character with Ganondorf.<\/p>\n

The project was known as “Goliath” (reflecting the scale of the idea), and the concept came about in “late 2022” after the release of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope<\/a>. The creative director Davide Solani was leading the project, and the plan was to go beyond a “third Mario + Rabbids game” and “create a new big bang in the video game system” as part of the studio’s next collaboration with Nintendo.<\/p>\n

“Instead of a sequel or prequel, the game was set to be a new spinoff in the Zelda universe, with the player controlling a new, never-before-seen protagonist. That later changed during the concept phase to have the player control Ganondorf, the archenemy of Link and Zelda.”<\/p>\n

It’s claimed Solani and a small team worked “tirelessly on the new idea throughout the winter” and by early 2023, the “perfect pitch” was complete. The group was given “until around the end of 2023 to deliver a compelling prototype”, but in “late November” of the same year, Nintendo rejected it, and the project was shut down. The reasons for Nintendo’s final decision “remain unclear”.<\/p>\n

Two developers “privy to high-level talks” suggest a proposal emerged after this for the Milan studio to work on “different Nintendo IP”, with internal rumours at the studio name-dropping Star Fox<\/a> or another game set in the Mario<\/a> universe. However, around “late 2023 and early 2024”, communication between Nintendo and Ubisoft began to “break down”.<\/p>\n

The team was then split and spread across different Ubisoft projects, and Soliani & other key members<\/a> departed Ubisoft Milan in July 2024. As you might already know, this is not the first time we’ve heard about cancelled Zelda projects. Metroid Prime<\/a> developer Retro Studios also had plans for a few titles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[source insider-gaming.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\tRelated Games<\/p>\n

\tSee Also<\/p>\n

\"Liam<\/p>\n

Liam is a news writer and reviewer on Nintendo Life. He’s been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of many iconic video game characters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Nintendo A new “exclusive” report from Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson has supposedly lifted the lid on a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[363064,363063,1299,5177,9354,74,15751,138685],"class_list":["post-860173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-ganondorf","tag-mario-rabbids","tag-nintendo","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-rumours","tag-technology","tag-ubisoft","tag-zelda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}