Rumor: Mario + Rabbids dev pitched Zelda spin-off to Nintendo featuring Ganondorf
Rumor: Mario + Rabbids dev pitched Zelda spin-off to Nintendo featuring Ganondorf
Posted on <a href="https://comicvibe.com/build-the-pyramid-codes-september-2026/” title=”Build The Pyramid Codes (September 2026)”>September 24, 2026 by Brian(@NE_Brian)
in General Nintendo, Rumors
According to a report from Insider Gaming, the team behind the Mario + Rabbids games once made a pitch to Nintendo for a Zelda spin-off featuring Ganondorf.
Nintendo and Ubisoft Milan were apparently discussing their next collaboration in 2022. Previously, this team made Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle and Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope.
The initial pitch was an original Zelda spin-off starring a previously unknown protagonist. Nintendo apparently liked the idea, but wanted the character to be Ganondorf instead.
Insider Gaming says Mario + Rabbids creative director Davide Soliani and a small team worked on the idea during the winter. In early 2023, “Ubisoft Milan finally had what they deemed the perfect pitch.” The project was known internally as Goliath at the time.
Ubisoft Milan was given until around the end of 2023 to deliver a compelling prototype. Unfortunately, in late November 2023, Nintendo rejected it. It’s unclear why that decision was made.
Ubisoft Milan didn’t stop there. Insider Gaming reports: “Internal rumors at the studio suggested that games including Star Fox, or even another game set in the Mario universe, were in the running, but between late 2023 and early 2024, conversations between Nintendo and Ubisoft began to break down.”
That was pretty much the end of things. The Ubisoft Milan team was split up and put into different projects. Soliani, Cristina Nava, and Gian Marco Zanna would then go on to leave the company and found Day 4 Night with Christian Cantamessa. The studio’s debut game, Bradley the Badger, was announced in October 2024.
Metroid Prime developer Retro Studios also worked on a Zelda spin-off pitch of its own. You can read more about that here.
More: The Legend of Zelda, top, Ubisoft
