Ubisoft Milan Pitched a Zelda Spin-Off Starring Ganondorf, and Nintendo Helped Design It Before Rejecting It

By Indie Kings | September 27, 2026

Updated September 27, 2026: Ubisoft Milan reportedly developed a The Legend of Zelda spin-off starring Ganondorf, and Nintendo rejected the prototype in November 2023. The interesting part is that the pitch had already been accepted in a modified form. The team went in with a brand new character as protagonist, Nintendo reportedly liked the concept and asked them to switch the lead to Link's arch nemesis, and the prototype was then turned down anyway. The report also places the project's death inside a broader collapse in the Nintendo and Ubisoft relationship rather than treating it as a single decision about one game.

Verification note: This is a reported story, not a confirmed one, and it is sourced through a chain we want to be explicit about. Eurogamer reports it, citing Insider Gaming, citing unnamed "sources familiar with the discussions". No part of it has been confirmed by Nintendo or by Ubisoft, and the report itself states that the reasons for Nintendo's decision "remain unclear". We have kept that uncertainty intact rather than speculating about motive, and we have not treated any detail below as established fact.

Image: The Legend of Zelda. Credit: Eurogamer.

The pitch, and what Nintendo changed

The shape of the project is genuinely unusual, and the unusual part is that Nintendo was reported to be enthusiastic about it.

According to the report, Ubisoft Milan began working on the pitch in 2022, shortly after the launch of Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. That is worth pausing on, because the sequel's sales were described as modest. A collaboration that had not set the console on fire was still the basis for a second conversation with Nintendo, and those conversations reportedly went somewhere substantial.

The internal ambition belonged to Mario + Rabbids co-creator Davide Soliani, who is described as having considerably greater ambitions this time around. Ubisoft Milan spent a winter building what the team itself deemed the perfect pitch, for a project internally called Project Goliath: a new The Legend of Zelda spin-off.

And here is the detail that makes the story more than a cancelled game. The pitch was built around a brand new character as its protagonist, not an existing one. Nintendo is reported to have liked the concept, and then asked the team to replace their own character with Ganondorf, Link's arch nemesis.

It is worth being clear about how unusual that request is, because it is the part most likely to be misread. This is not a company grudgingly agreeing to a spin-off it did not want. On the account given, Nintendo was interested enough in the project to participate in shaping its protagonist, and the protagonist it asked for was a villain. Whatever else is true, that is not a rejection at the concept stage.

The prototype was rejected separately

Work continued after the protagonist change, and then it stopped.

In November 2023, Nintendo reportedly rejected the Ubisoft Milan prototype. That is a distinct event from the pitch discussion, and the distinction matters for how the project should be understood. A concept Nintendo had engaged with, and helped reshape, was still turned down once there was something playable to judge.

The report is explicit that the reasons "remain unclear", and we are going to leave it there rather than speculate. Several explanations are available and none of them is evidenced: a creative mismatch on execution, a change in Nintendo's own plans for the property, a scheduling or resource decision, or the beginning of the relationship deterioration described below. Picking one would be invention.

What came after, and what it turned into

What makes this more than a cancelled prototype is what followed, because the project did not simply fail and close.

After Project Goliath, another Nintendo IP project was reportedly discussed, with rumours ranging from a new Star Fox game to another Mario spin-off. That second project also did not happen, and the report gives a timeline for why: between late 2023 and early 2024, conversations between Nintendo and Ubisoft began to break down.

So the sequence reads as a deterioration rather than two decisions. A Zelda spin-off was developed and rejected in November 2023. A second Nintendo project was discussed and did not materialise. The relationship broke down across the same window. Reading those as one story rather than three coincidences is the more coherent interpretation, and it is the one the reporting supports.

As reported by Eurogamer citing Insider Gaming. No element has been confirmed by Nintendo or Ubisoft.

That framing also changes what the project was. A cancelled spin-off is trivia. A cancelled spin-off that is one of the last substantive things two major platform holders attempted together before that relationship stopped working is a data point about the relationship, and it is the more useful half of the story.

The human cost, and a studio founded on it

The concrete consequence for the people involved is the part with a name attached.

With Project Goliath dead, members of the team were reportedly dispersed across the wider Ubisoft company to work on other things. And Davide Soliani, a 25-year Ubisoft veteran at that point, left the publisher and established his own studio, Day 4 Night.

That is the outcome that turns a cancelled game into something with a cost. A pitch developed over a winter, a prototype built, a protagonist chosen with the platform holder's input, and then a decision, and then a dispersal, and then the person who drove it leaves to start again. None of that is visible in a release schedule, which is why cancelled projects rarely get reported at all and why this one is worth covering when it does surface.

What is not knowable from this

Three limits on the report are worth stating plainly, because the story invites over-reading.

Every source is anonymous. The reporting rests on "sources familiar with the discussions". Nobody involved is on the record, and accounts from a project that fell apart are exactly the kind that shift depending on who is speaking.

Nothing is confirmed by either company. Neither Nintendo nor Ubisoft has commented in what we have seen. A project can be discussed and developed without a company ever confirming it existed.

The motive is explicitly unavailable. The report says the reasons for the rejection remain unclear, and it is better to leave the question of why Nintendo declined a Zelda game it had helped reshape genuinely open than to supply a plausible answer.

What can be said is bounded but solid. A project called Project Goliath existed at Ubisoft Milan, it was a Zelda spin-off, it had a new protagonist who was then swapped for Ganondorf at Nintendo's request, a prototype was rejected in November 2023, and the person who drove it left Ubisoft to found a studio. Everything beyond that is inference.

FAQ

What was Project Goliath?

A The Legend of Zelda spin-off reportedly developed by Ubisoft Milan, the studio behind the Mario + Rabbids games. It was pitched in 2022, shortly after Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope launched, and was built around a brand new protagonist rather than an existing character. Nintendo is reported to have liked the concept and asked for the protagonist to be changed to Ganondorf.

Why did Nintendo reject it?

The reason is not known. The report states that the reasons behind the decision "remain unclear", and no explanation has come from Nintendo or Ubisoft. Nintendo is reported to have rejected the prototype in November 2023, which was a separate step from agreeing to reshape the pitch, but why the prototype was turned down is not established.

Who reported this and how?

Eurogamer reported it, citing Insider Gaming, which cites unnamed "sources familiar with the discussions". Neither Nintendo nor Ubisoft has confirmed any part of it, and no source is on the record.

What happened to Davide Soliani?

The Mario + Rabbids co-creator, described as a 25-year Ubisoft veteran at the time, left the publisher after the project failed and established his own studio, Day 4 Night. Other members of the team were reportedly dispersed across Ubisoft to work on other projects.

Was the new protagonist Nintendo's idea or Ubisoft's?

Ubisoft Milan's. The pitch was reportedly built around a brand new character, and Nintendo is the party that asked for that character to be replaced with Ganondorf. That is the reverse of the usual third-party pitch, where a developer proposes something and a platform holder approves or declines it.

Was it just one cancelled game?

That is the less coherent reading. A second Nintendo IP project was reportedly discussed afterwards, with rumours of a new Star Fox game or another Mario spin-off, and it did not happen either. The report places the breakdown in the Nintendo and Ubisoft relationship between late 2023 and early 2024, which suggests the cancelled prototype is one of the last substantive things the two companies attempted together rather than an isolated decision.

Bottom Line

The detail that makes this worth reading is not that a Zelda spin-off was cancelled. It is that Nintendo is reported to have been an active participant in shaping the project before turning it down. The team went in with a brand new character as protagonist, Nintendo liked the concept, and the request it made was to replace that character with Ganondorf, Link's arch nemesis. That is a platform holder engaging with a pitch and helping redesign its lead, which is not what a rejection looks like at the concept stage. And yet in November 2023 the prototype was turned down, with the report stating plainly that the reasons remain unclear. Two decisions, in that order, and the second is much harder to explain than the first. What gives the story weight beyond a cancelled game is what followed. Another Nintendo IP project was reportedly discussed, ranging from a new Star Fox to another Mario spin-off, and it did not happen either. The reporting places the breakdown in the relationship between late 2023 and early 2024. Read that way, Project Goliath stops being trivia and becomes one of the last substantive things Nintendo and Ubisoft attempted together before those conversations stopped working, which is a far more useful thing to know about either company. The human cost is the part with a name on it. A pitch built over a winter, a prototype, a protagonist chosen with the platform holder's input, and then a dispersal of the team, and then Davide Soliani, a 25-year veteran, leaving to found Day 4 Night. That sequence does not appear in a release schedule, which is exactly why cancelled projects are rarely covered when they do leak. On sourcing, this is a chain worth holding loosely: Eurogamer citing Insider Gaming citing unnamed sources familiar with the discussions, with no confirmation from either company. Accounts of a project that collapsed tend to vary by speaker, and we have not filled the gap by guessing. The one question this report cannot answer is the one everyone will ask, which is why Nintendo said no to a game it had helped reshape. The honest position is that the answer is not available, and a plausible story about internal strategy would be worth less than an uninteresting one that is actually sourced. What can be said is bounded and solid, and it is a good deal more interesting than a bare cancellation: the project existed, it was a Zelda spin-off, the protagonist was a new character until Nintendo asked for Ganondorf, the prototype was refused, and the person who drove it left Ubisoft to start a studio.

Source: Eurogamer, Ubisoft's Mario + Rabbids team reportedly came close to making an "ambitious" Zelda game starring Ganondorf, but it wasn't to be, citing Insider Gaming

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