Franchise fatigue and development misfires. That’s why Ubisoft gave the franchise a breather in 2016, and they’re doing it again next year.
“We are not going have to a full-fledged Assassin’s next year,” Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot said to Gamespot at Gamescom this week.
Guillemot also touched on why we’re getting Assassin’s Creed Odyssey this year despite Ubisoft not wanting yearly games anymore. “It’s just because the teams were working separately, so we have two games now, one year after the other. But next year you’re not going to have fully fledged one.”
With the franchise taking a break next year, Ubisoft plans to support Odyssey through all of next year. That ‘games as a service’ model that has proven itself big time with Rainbow Six: Siege, For Honor, and Ghost Recon: Wildlands (to a lesser degree) – will be embraced with Odyssey.
Eurogamer is reporting “whispers” of an Atlantis themed expansion at some point in 2019. That fits with the whole ‘games as a service’ model.
I’m glad Ubisoft isn’t jumping back on the annualized wagon for Assassin’s Creed. All it does is dilute the franchise. My backlog is already a hopeless endeavor. I don’t need yearly Assassin’s Creed games adding to it. Plus, you run the risk of faster development leading to more bugs. That issue reared its ugly head with Assassin’s Creed: Unity.
Taking a year off also means the next time we see a fully-fledged Assassin’s Creed could be on new console hardware. With a revitalized franchise ready to help push the new hardware.
Where do you want to see the next Assassin’s Creed go? Japan is always at the top of everyone’s list, mine included – but I would be all over a game using the Inca or Aztec empire as the backdrop.