The Future of Assassin’s Creed

Ubisoft discusses how the Assassin’s Creed franchise will adapt to the console transition, plus how it will handle future sequels.

Assassin’s Creed is one of the biggest success stories of this generation. Since launching in 2007, more than 40 million games have been sold worldwide, with Assassin’s Creed III alone responsible for 12 million.
With new systems on the way from Sony and Microsoft, Assassin’s Creed IV will mark the first time the franchise has faced a console transition, plus the most platforms of any entry released in the series thus far. In an interview with IGN, Ubisoft senior vice president of sales and marketing Tony Key explained why that isn’t a problem.
“I find it hard to believe that Assassin’s Creed will be dependent on hardware for its brand equity,” Key told IGN. “Our challenge is to make sure that we’re creating a truly innovative, unique, valuable experience. That’s why we started going into bringing new characters in every year. We’re trying to make it feel fresh. This year it’s pirates. You personally, you cannot deny that you wanted to be a pirate at some point in your life. It’s the third-biggest-selling Halloween costume in America every year. I checked. We think pirates are a really great theme. We love the rock star aspect of all of that.”

 
“We’ve begun to take advantage of the next generation,” Key continued. “Those versions are going to look gorgeous. They have more of the density that I’m talking about. As we go forward, and as we learn more on all our products about what the next generation’s power really is and what it can do, you’ll start to see way more innovation. We’ve got so many talented people working on that brand. They can’t wait to show you what’s next for Assassin’s Creed. It’s something that we’ve spent a lot of time and resources cultivating over time. One of the things that people should consider is how much R&D goes into building a next-generation engine. Assassin’s Creed is a three-year project, despite the fact that we have a game coming out every year. We have a lot of people working on that brand right now.”
Like Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed IV once again introduces a new assassin and setting, a departure from the three games we previously spent with Ezio. Key explained Ubisoft’s plan to keep the franchise fresh moving forward.
“I think Assassin’s Creed III took longer, when you look at it, than we had anticipated,” Key said. “We were also able to come up with a lot of rich content ideas around Brotherhood and Revelations. Also, we had that character. We had a hard time letting go of Ezio, because he was so popular.”
“Will we treat each game as a full sequel in terms of a new character, a new setting? That’s to be determined,” he continued. “But that’s working for us right now. I would hate to think that we could never do another game about Edward Kenway. When you’re making a full sequel and you’re trying to give everybody two years to do it, you have to have two big teams working on Assassin’s Creed, and in some cases three. For a while we had three teams working on Assassin’s Creed III, Assassin’s Creed IV, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. It’s a lot of resources. We can’t do two Assassin’s Creed games a year. From a branding perspective, we’re going to do what works. If we think we can make a great spin-off product, we’ll make it. For me, again, it’s just a matter of resources.”

 
While Assassin’s Creed games have always seen their primary development housed at Ubisoft Montreal, the franchise continues to expand to additional studios, such as Ubisoft Annecy handling multiplayer and, most recently, Ubisoft Toronto collaborating on future titles. According to Key, Montreal will remain the lead studio for now, but, depending on the situation, Ubisoft is open to a studio like Toronto leading an entry in the series moving forward.
“Never say never,” Key said. “Montreal has been the lead on every Assassin’s Creed, but that doesn’t mean they always will be. That’s still to be determined. But for sure, I could see it, of course, if there’s a scenario where it’s an established studio with a good track record. It’s a really important brand to us. We would have to have a lot of confidence to move the lead for that game to another studio. Jade [Raymond]’s team is obviously very experienced. They’re finishing up their first game now. They’re getting more and more people into the studio. So I could foresee a day when that studio could take that role. I don’t know if that’s in the cards or not.”
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will hit Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U on October 29th, with PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions to follow.