The Assassin’s Creed franchise is to become annual with a new game very year according to recent news, however they already know how they want the series to end.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag game director Ashraf Ismail spoke with Eurogamer and confirmed reports about the franchise as well as revealing that an end is already planned.
“We have multiple development teams, then we have the brand team that sits on top and is filled with writers and designers concerned with the series’ overall arc, so there is an overall arc, and each iteration has its place inside this.
“We have an idea of where the end is, what the end is. But of course Yves [Guillemot, Ubisoft’s overall boss] announced we are a yearly title, we ship one game a year. So depending on the setting, depending on what fans want, we’ve given ourselves room to fit more in this arc. But there is an end.”
“We’re now able to seed stuff earlier and earlier in our games, so for example in [AC4] we have Edward, who was seeded in Assassin’s Creed 3. But there’s a lot more stuff in our game that is hinting at other possibilities.”
One major problem with making a franchise annual is that the player can get worn out by the same gameplay over and over again, if they are going to make it successful each game needs to be different enough from the previous one so that it feels new. This has been a major problem with the Call Of Duty series, however those are still the best selling games so they must be doing something right.
I like that they have an ending for the Assassin’s Creed franchise planned, this means that they know where they are going and we shouldn’t be left with too many plotholes at the end. There is nothing more frustrating than a franchise ending with unanswered questions and gaps in the story, I’m looking at you, Lost.
Check out the video embedded above for the first look at the shark killing gameplay from Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, it looks very impressive and a nice addition to the series. Plus let me know in the comments what you think about Ismail’s interview, I’d love to hear your opinions.
