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Assassin’s Creed may never be annually released again

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Assassin's Creed might never be annual again

We aren’t getting a new Assassin’s Creed this year (or at least, not a core entry anyway), and Ubisoft are finally letting the franchise take a little breather to reassess what it brings to the table in terms of gameplay and quality. That’s a great thing, especially with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate being the seventh title in the money printing franchise to be released year on year. It didn’t sell as well as Ubisoft hoped, and they might have learnt a little more from that than you expect.

When Assassin’s Creed does return in 2017, it might be the dawn of a new era. Speaking during Investors Day yesterday, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot mentioned that the franchise might never go back to annual launches again.

“The goal is not automatically to come back on annual cycle but to come on a regular basis.  We saw it was time to give it lots of time so [developers] could really work on the property and all the mechanics to make sure we could take [the series] to another level.”

“What we are seeing today is promising. We will be able to come on a regular basis [but] we can’t say every year.”

What a regular basis means is up to interpretation, but it would appear that Ubisoft is taking into account how quickly a franchise can suffer from fatigue – and how it can exponentially adversely affect the titles set to come in future years. This was clear with Syndicate – an otherwise great entry into the franchise that was overlooked due to past failures and general ambivalence towards the franchise.

It’s a great stance to see, especially given the enormous financial risk Ubisoft is taking by not only putting Assassin’s Creed on the backburner for this year, but not committing to as many frequent releases in the future. Annual releases aren’t the only factor forcing Ubisoft to do this, so it’s going to be very interesting to see how they plan to evolve the series with the extra time.

Last Updated: February 19, 2016

No Comments

  1. Good

    Reply

  2. Commander Admiral Chief

    February 19, 2016 at 07:37

    I stopped caring after AC Brotherhood

    Reply

  3. Alien Emperor Trevor

    February 19, 2016 at 07:42

    Good. AC games are fun, but they really stopped improving the game play since 2.2. The only cool new thing they’ve done since is introducing ship battles in 3.

    Reply

  4. Hammersteyn

    February 19, 2016 at 07:45

    It’s not like Ubisoft needs to. I be if it wasn’t for The Division and Ghost Recon around the corner they would’ve continued doing the same

    Reply

  5. Francois Knoetze

    February 19, 2016 at 07:47

    now if only activision could do the same with call of duty…oh wait that will never happen.

    Reply

    • Hammersteyn

      February 19, 2016 at 07:49

      Assassins Creed Syndicate and Unity didn’t sell as well as they hoped while COD… yeah, depressing I know.

      Reply

  6. Jonah Cash

    February 19, 2016 at 08:14

    It really needs a modern day storyline to keep the different entries tied to each other. They had the right idea with Desmond, they should just have fleshed it out a lot more. And had an hour or two per game in the present picking up where the last one left off.

    Reply

  7. D4RKL1NG

    February 19, 2016 at 08:18

    As a massive AC fan (I enjoyed all the core entries except 3 and Unity) I welcome this news. Get me excited again Ubisoft! And if the leaks are true (The leak did mentioned they’re skipping this year) then they will go for a more open world “The Witcher III” type game next set in possibly Egypt. All games IMHO should be more Witchery..That game set a new gaming standard.

    Reply

    • Commander Admiral Chief

      February 19, 2016 at 08:22

      “should be more Witchery”

      Made me lolz, thanks

      Also, agreed

      Reply

  8. HairyEwok

    February 19, 2016 at 08:28

    Good riddance, about time AC halted their annual releases. Now CoD should be next.

    Reply

  9. oVg

    February 19, 2016 at 08:53

    In other words, they just announced Prince of Persia.

    Reply

  10. Viking Of Science

    February 19, 2016 at 10:10

    Theory: They’re Going to make FARCRY their new Annual Franchise.
    Trend of Releases:
    Farcry 2 -> Farcry 3 – 4 years
    Farcry 3 -> Farcry 4 – 2 years
    Farcry 4 -> Farcry Primal 15 months.

    Reply

    • Darren Peach

      February 19, 2016 at 12:07

      Yeah. Far Cry needs a new direction. Mechanics are getting stale.

      Reply

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