A reported Ubisoft Milan Zelda spin-off, codenamed Goliath, was allegedly reworked around Ganondorf before Nintendo rejected its prototype in late 2023.
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Nintendo reportedly rejected a Ganondorf-led Ubisoft prototype
The strongest claim in the latest The Legend of Zelda rumor is also the one that creates the most tension: Ubisoft Milan reportedly built a Zelda spin-off prototype starring Ganondorf, only for Nintendo to reject it in late 2023. According to coverage of Insider Gaming’s September 24 report by GameSpot, Kotaku, VGTimes, MyNintendoNews, Northeast Times, and Time News, the project carried the internal codename Goliath and emerged from the same Ubisoft Milan orbit that had delivered Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.
This was not announced by Nintendo, Ubisoft, or The Legend of Zelda’s official channels. No trailer, platform list, store page, price, or release window exists in the provided source material. The story rests on reporting attributed to Insider Gaming and subsequent coverage by other outlets. Ubisoft declined to comment to Insider Gaming, according to Kotaku, and the reason for Nintendo’s reported rejection remains unclear across the accounts.
That uncertainty matters because the premise would have been unusual by Zelda standards. GameSpot notes that, outside the Super Smash Bros. series, a playable Ganondorf would have represented a first for the character. For a franchise whose combat cadence usually frames Ganondorf as the pressure at the end of the road rather than the hand on the sword, the reported pitch suggests a spin-off with a very different center of gravity.
Goliath reportedly began as a new-character Zelda spin-off
The project described in these reports did not apparently start with Ganondorf at the front of the poster. MyNintendoNews says Ubisoft pitched a game set in the world of The Legend of Zelda starring an unknown protagonist, while Kotaku and VGTimes, citing Insider Gaming, describe the original lead as a new character who had not appeared in the Zelda universe before. The codename Goliath, as VGTimes frames it, reflected the scale of Ubisoft Milan’s ambition after Sparks of Hope.
The reported turning point came when Nintendo responded positively to the concept but asked for a major creative change. Multiple outlets, including Kotaku, GameSpot, and Northeast Times, say Nintendo wanted the protagonist swapped to Ganondorf. Ubisoft reportedly complied, with a small team led by Davide Soliani, the Mario + Rabbids director, working toward a prototype deadline by the end of 2023.
That premise is the headline grabber, but it is also the part readers should treat with proper caution. We do not have design documents, footage, combat descriptions, genre details, or a Nintendo statement confirming how Ganondorf would have played. Insider Gaming’s report, as summarized by Kotaku, did not describe what the prototype looked like or what kind of game Ubisoft Milan was making. Any assumption that it was an action-adventure, a tactical game, a character action project, or something closer to Ubisoft’s open-world template would go beyond the sourced record.
A villain-led Zelda would have changed the series’ rhythm
Even without prototype details, the reported Ganondorf shift says a great deal about the creative stakes. Link’s adventures are built around escalation: vulnerable beginnings, gradual tool mastery, dungeons or dungeon-like trials, and a climactic collision with a force that has been stalking the story from a distance. A Ganondorf spin-off would invert that pacing. The question would no longer be how a hero survives the shadow, but what it feels like to move through Hyrule, or a corner of it, as the shadow itself.
That is interpretation, not a confirmed design summary. The sources do not say whether Goliath would have shown Ganondorf’s rise, reimagined his role, placed him in an alternate scenario, or used him in a side story separated from mainline continuity. VGTimes specifically describes the project as a spin-off, not a sequel or prequel to the main series. That distinction is important. It suggests the reported Ubisoft Zelda game was being positioned outside the direct chain of mainline Zelda releases, though the exact narrative relationship is unconfirmed.
From an action-adventure perspective, Ganondorf also brings a different implied combat language. Link is defined by adaptability: sword, shield, bow, magic tools, borrowed powers, and environmental improvisation. Ganondorf is usually framed through weight, dominance, sorcery, and boss-stage spectacle. If Ubisoft Milan was asked to rebuild a new-character concept around him, the team would have needed to solve a difficult design problem: how to make a final-boss figure playable without draining away the menace that makes him valuable.
The cancellation reportedly strained the Nintendo and Ubisoft relationship
The reported rejection did not occur in isolation. GameSpot says Nintendo rejected the prototype in late 2023 and that the team, including Davide Soliani, later left Ubisoft and formed Day 4 Night. Kotaku reports that after the cancellation, Ubisoft tried pitching Nintendo on other IP, with Star Fox and Mario mentioned as possible directions, but that communication between Nintendo and Ubisoft began to stop by early 2024. VGTimes similarly says negotiations gradually fizzled out between late 2023 and early 2024.
There are some wording differences worth keeping separate. MyNintendoNews says the project started in 2022 and was pitched in 2023, while other summaries emphasize discussions after Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope in late 2022 and a full pitch in early 2023. Those timelines can coexist, but they are not identical. MyNintendoNews also describes Ubisoft Milan as “now defunct,” while other provided sources focus on staff departures, developers being scattered to other projects, and some leads moving to Beyond Good & Evil 2. The source material here does not include an official Ubisoft closure notice, so the safer reading is that Goliath’s cancellation reportedly disrupted the team and preceded notable departures, rather than treating studio status as fully settled.
The personnel piece is one of the most concrete aftermath details. Kotaku names Soliani, Cristina Nava, and Gian Marco Zanna among Ubisoft developers who later left in July 2024. Kotaku also notes that the group formed Day 4 Night, which is working on Bradley the Badger. VGTimes attributes to Zanna the idea that Goliath’s fate drove him and colleagues to leave, and Time News repeats a Zanna quote, via Insider Gaming, describing Soliani’s ambition for the project in enormous terms. Those comments give shape to how seriously the team reportedly took the opportunity.
The missing answers are as important as the premise
For players searching for a canceled Zelda game, the practical answer is simple: there is no announced Ganondorf spin-off to wait for, preorder, wishlist, or track on a platform storefront. The sources do not identify target hardware, price, performance goals, multiplayer features, engine, combat system, or a planned release year. They also do not say whether Goliath reached a public-facing production stage beyond a prototype shown to Nintendo.
The largest unanswered question is why Nintendo reportedly rejected it. MyNintendoNews says it is not clear why Nintendo decided to cancel the game. Kotaku, VGTimes, and Time News all leave the rejection reason unresolved as well. That silence leaves several possibilities, but none can be reported as fact from the provided material. Nintendo might have objected to design execution, brand fit, production risk, timing, internal strategy, or some combination of factors. The sourced record only supports one narrower claim: a prototype was reportedly delivered in late November 2023 and Nintendo did not approve it.
That caution also applies to the state of the broader Nintendo Ubisoft Zelda relationship. Some coverage frames Goliath’s cancellation as the end or possible end of the collaboration. The stronger sourced version is that Ubisoft reportedly tried to pivot to another Nintendo IP and those efforts did not move forward, with communication said to have slowed or stopped by early 2024. Until either company comments, the partnership’s exact status remains unconfirmed.
How to read this Zelda report without overplaying it
The reported Ubisoft Zelda game sits in a strange space between a dream pitch and a lost release. It is substantial enough to have a codename, a reported prototype, named creative leads, and a described shift from a new protagonist to Ganondorf. It is also absent from every official consumer channel that would normally turn rumor into product: no Nintendo Direct reveal, no Ubisoft Forward segment, no store listing, no ESRB or ratings-board trail in the provided sources, and no cancellation statement from either company.
That makes the story valuable, but not because it points to a hidden game about to resurface. Its value is in the glimpse it offers at how carefully Nintendo guards The Legend of Zelda, even when working with an external partner that had already proven it could handle Mario in an unexpected genre. Mario + Rabbids was a successful example of Nintendo letting another studio bend a core icon into a new tactical shape. A Ganondorf spin-off would have asked for a different kind of trust, with a darker lead, heavier lore implications, and a playable identity that could easily fight against decades of Zelda structure.
For now, the safest conclusion is that Goliath was a reported Nintendo Ubisoft Zelda collaboration that did not survive prototype approval. The Ganondorf spin-off idea appears to have been real enough for multiple outlets to report the same broad sequence from Insider Gaming’s account, but it remains unannounced, unreleased, and unexplained by the companies involved. Until Nintendo or Ubisoft speaks, this is best understood as a carefully sourced report about a canceled project, not a sign that The Legend of Zelda is officially preparing to hand its next blade to Ganondorf.