My personal quest for the last four years has been debunking the rumor that Notre Dame was restored using 3D models from the video game Assassin’s Creed Unity. It’s a humble quest, but it’s mine.

Some form of this rumor has existed since the cathedral caught fire in 2018 — even though the official paper trail easily refutes it.

Believing that 3D models for a 2014 video game could have aided the restoration is a discredit to the scientists and artisans who did the back-breaking labor of saving the cathedral. Equally, it’s a disservice to the artists who created the game model, and the artistry that they employed. The beautiful thing about this game model, to me, is that it rang emotionally true. If you look closely at it, you can see how different it is from the physical cathedral. But the developers captured an essence of Notre Dame that made players want badly to believe that it was real.

I think that’s a really beautiful thing. But also, I want people to stop lying online.

I revisited the topic again when rumors about Notre Dame started circulating during the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, and laid out all the research that helped me build this story. And 2025, I wrote a follow-up story that tracked the restoration of the cathedral, and the ways in which gaming technology did play a part.