Charles Randall, a former team leader at Ubisoft Montreal, has claimed that assets identical to those he worked on for Assassin's Creed II have been used in the recently announced Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
Randall, who now works for Capybara Games and is developing Below, expressed his surprise on Twitter after seeing the recently released gameplay trailer for the game, saying that there "for sure" were imitations of his code in Monoliths game.
Randall Tweeted: "I know I don't have any legeal rights to what I did on Assassin's Creed 2, but I sure hope I get a special thanks on that Middle Earth game," as well as responding to a comment by saying: "That's AC2 stuff in there. Code/anim for sure... I spent two years staring at AC2. I know [my code] when I see it"
Later the Capybara dev went on to explain his position, and that he wasn't accusing Monolith of stealing his work: "People seem to think I was implying theft -- not at all. I just assumed either a licensing deal or just AC used as heavy reference."
Ubisoft has yet to clarify whether they've licensed some or all of the Assassin's Creed engine. We'll update you if and when we know more, and you can read our preview of Middle-Earth: Shadows of Mordor when it lands on the site later today.