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Ubisoft Milan reportedly prototyped a Zelda spin-off starring Ganondorf
Ubisoft Milan may have come surprisingly close to moving from Mario + Rabbids to a Zelda game built around Ganondorf. A new Insider Gaming investigation reports that Davide Soliani’s team developed a prototype codenamed Goliath in 2023. The account is detailed, and an older public interview supports part of the surrounding story, but Nintendo and Ubisoft have not officially confirmed the Zelda project.
By Maëlle 
Goliath reportedly started with a completely new protagonist
According to Insider Gaming, conversations about another Nintendo collaboration began after Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope. Soliani and a small Ubisoft Milan team then spent the following winter developing an ambitious idea for a standalone game set in The Legend of Zelda universe.
Ganondorf apparently was not part of the original pitch. The proposed lead was a previously unseen character, but the report says Nintendo liked the broader concept and asked Ubisoft Milan to replace that character with Ganondorf. The longtime Zelda antagonist would consequently have become the character controlled by the player.
The report does not reveal a complete plot, detailed gameplay systems or any material from the prototype itself. No verified Goliath screenshots or artwork were published with the sources checked for this article.
Nintendo reportedly rejected the prototype in November 2023
Ubisoft Milan was reportedly given until around the end of 2023 to produce a prototype strong enough to pass another internal approval stage. Insider Gaming’s sources place Nintendo’s rejection in late November. The reason for that decision remains unknown.
That timeline also puts an important limit on what Goliath appears to have been. The reporting describes a substantial concept and a playable or demonstrable prototype seeking a greenlight, not a fully announced Zelda production that was quietly removed from a release calendar.
A 2024 interview had already described a mysterious project that collapsed
There is some public background that predates the Goliath report. In December 2024, former Ubisoft Milan manager Gian Marco Zanna told Multiplayer.it that the studio had rallied around an unusually ambitious Davide Soliani project. He said a series of positive steps ultimately ended with a rejection from a party outside Ubisoft.
Zanna also connected the loss of that opportunity with the decision by several developers to leave Ubisoft. He deliberately refused to identify the project at the time. That means the interview cannot independently prove that the mystery game was Goliath or even Zelda, but the broader sequence described publicly in 2024 is consistent with part of Insider Gaming’s later account.
The aftermath goes beyond one cancelled prototype
Insider Gaming says other Nintendo possibilities were discussed after Goliath was rejected, with internal talk reportedly touching on Star Fox and another Mario-related project. Those details remain reported internal discussions rather than confirmed Nintendo plans.
What is public is that Soliani, Cristina Nava and Gian Marco Zanna left Ubisoft in 2024 and later helped establish Day 4 Night. The new studio eventually revealed Bradley the Badger as its first game.
Insider Gaming says Ubisoft was contacted before publication but did not provide a comment in time. No public statement identified from Nintendo or Ubisoft confirms Goliath, the reported Ganondorf switch or the reason the prototype was rejected. Until either company or the developers involved provide direct documentation, the most extraordinary Zelda game Ubisoft Milan may have built remains a carefully reported piece of cancelled-game history rather than an officially acknowledged chapter of the series.