Good news: Ubisoft's not going to run the Assassin's Creed franchise into the ground, with Kotaku sources stating that the next entry in the series will not release until 2017. Bad news: you're probably going to get a Watch Dogs sequel in place of the stealth series' – pulls out calculator – tenth mainline title. Have there really been that many?
We actually read this rumour earlier today, but it originated on 4chan so we naturally rolled our eyes and walked the other way. But font of all knowledge – and uber-accurate Kotaku scribe – Jason Schreier has followed up with his own sources, stating that the next game is codenamed Empires and is set in Egypt. Just when he was getting back on Ubisoft's Christmas card list, too.
Apparently, the French publisher witnessed the fallout from the awful Assassin's Creed Unity and decided that it needed to do something differently, so it's giving its team an extended development cycle. The brief break from the historical series won't harm the brand's very real franchise fatigue either – though it does still have to market those side-scrolling spin-offs… Next week.
It sounds like Ubi's happy to give Creed a bit of a break because it's got Watch Dogs 2 lined up for Christmas, and we'll learn more about that later this year. That one's apparently set in San Francisco, and will hopefully plot the return of Aiden Pearce's iconic cap. At least you'll still get your open world checklist fix, eh?
AAA blockbusters: improving the industry one tower at a time.
[source kotaku.com]
Comments 36
This is good news. The only people gon' be peeved are Sony Santa Monica, what with God of War IV obvs being set in Egypt and all.
The fantastic Assassin's Creed: Unity with a troubled release you mean. I launched a mess, but it was by far the best Assassins Creed game. It held all the core values of the series close, and while it was a bit rough around the edges, it succeed greatly it's launch aside. I hope that one turns out well, but Syndicate (which I like well enough) had the series get way off track. If it's a gameplay sequel to Unity though, consider my hype through the roof. This could be one of the greatest games ever made then.
@Jaz007 Haha, I think Unity's bad post-patch too, but it's all about opinions innit. At least someone enjoyed it. Looked pretty at least, and Elise was <3.
The real biggest mystery of Unity, though: WHY WEREN'T THEY FRENCH?!
I thought Unity was a decent game but it received a lot of hate.Two year cycle will be good for assassins creed and more content with the season pass.
Not sure why its bad news that Watch Dogs is getting a sequel?
@get2sammyb Yeah, that was a bit of a problem lol. All of the extremist enimes seemed to be a British immigrants. No idea why they didn't get a French actors speaking English like they got an Italian speaking English for Ezio.
@dryrain Just a joke really, though I do think that Watch Dogs was basically Urban Open World: The Game.
1 year cycle for games are no good. I am glad they are pushing it too 2 years. Hopefully give them time to build something amazing. I have not had the desire to play any on the ps4. Alway felt it was more off the same.
@brendon987 I actually think AC games are already made on two year cycles. (Different teams made Syndicate and Unity, for example.) The fact is that, frankly, even that's not enough for games of such enormous scope.
Just give us a proper new Rayman game!
Considering I liked Watch Dogs then I'm fine with it.
Isn't Watch Dogs in the same universe as AC? If so then we would be getting an AC game sort of.
Seems like Ubisoft is finally getting wise. Despite being about 5 years over due, this is a smart move.
Good news for Assassin's Creed if true. A bit of time and effort, and maybe the series can return to its former glory (I loved AC2 and Brotherhood).
Not that bothered about Watch Dogs 2, though..
Watch dogs was an okay game it had its problems like the driving mechanics and also that they false marketed it but its got a good game at core so hopefully number 2 will be awesome
extra developent time hasn't really helped CoD so will have to wait and see with this, Egypt is a setting i've always wanted though and it may just have the potential (more than any title since the ezio trilogy) to bring that classic AC feel back.
@Tasuki ahhhhhhh, I never knew that. Mind blown. I wonder if there will be more crossover this time as the connection has completely passed me by.
@SKC_Diamond @adf86 I'm with you both, I enjoyed it a lot.
To be fair to Watch Dogs, it's a decent game, and was a pretty solid sandbox offering around the time that the PS4 didn't have a massive catalogue of games. Having said that, it certainly had flaws, and although I feel like a sequel could fix many of them, it still has a lot to get right, especially given the nature of Ubisoft's open world titles.
@get2sammyb I actually really enjoyed Unity too so it has three fans at least Though those accents were atrocious to be fair! This looks like a really good move, allowing the team a whole extra year to produce the best game possible and hopefully give them plently of time for polishing and bug fixing PRE-launch!
Also really like the sound of an Assassins Creed set in Egypt, I remember reading an interview with one of the Creed developers a few years ago where he was asked what his personal favourite setting would be for a Creed game and he said Ancient Egypt, so hopefully he has a really great vision for this installment
It really bugs me when people knock the collectathon gameplay loop that Ubisoft games champion. I love it.
I would never have dreamed of collecting all the treasures say older Tomb Raider games or the packages in GTA III. Sure if I ran across something then I'd get it.
Then they started putting the collectibles on the map. Genius. Now there is no reason not to collect them. In fact throw in trophies and I'll happily spend hours scouring a vaguely marked out location for pretty much anything until the map is properly swept.
I blame Crackdown. Those orbs were like crack......
@ShogunRok Do you think, even with the issues resolved, it would stand out in the PS4 library in late 2016, though? I mean, it's a horrible question to throw out when we know next to nothing about the game, but I guess I'm just picking up on your point... Watch Dogs was good post-launch library fodder. It's going to need to be a lot better to stick out this year I feel.
@dnky666 It can be good, for sure. It's just when it's applied to every single game...
One open world to another, I suppose.
I'd rather have a new Rayman. Is that too much?
@get2sammyb If it's really easy to ignore, does it really matter though? Unity has an insane amount of collectibles, but they're easy to ignore, and the number makes for good impulse collecting.
Also, I hope they being back the competive multiplayer. That was one of my favorite things about Brotherhood.
It needs a three year break. And screw Ghost Recon or Watch Dogs 2, give us a Splinter Cell, closer to the old ones, damnit.
@Jaz007 For me, it's just lazy design. I really appreciated Bloodborne that bit more because it was subtractive rather than so additive. I guess it's just a personal pet peeve.
I really really hope this is true, this could have some potential
Watch Dogs was the PS4 game I bought together with my PS4 console and boy, was I disappointed with the game. Only thing fun about the game was the hacking another online player mission. The online tailing mission was flawed as well.
I'm verry interested for this then... I thought Unity's ideas were great, the first AC that I could actually customise my character(out of the ones I've played) how I wanted. It was great to have an armoured Assassin with a big weapon. The co-op when done with friends was so good when it worked... For example when your just both sneaking through murdering people and you get spotted but the other player jumps out of nowhere and slits his throat, saves the day!Lol. But the game was just a complete mess... If they base it in Egypt and keep what was good about Unity in, it could be a great game.(Cut out the annoying collectibles and make it harder in combat of course)
I agree... Unity was a good game just not when it came out. Really liked how how detailed Paris was and the story was great too. Syndicate is also pretty good just seems a bit rushed?
This is great new for ac then, been wanting them to go to Egypt for a long time. Having read the article on kotaku they said there's going to be minimal parkour? Not sure about that.. Isn't that one if the great things about ac? Climbing up basically anything....
Does this mean that Kotaku will get blacklisted again and then complain about it...again?
Can't we get rid of both franchises and start with something new and interesting. If it isn't conquistadors or shogun assassins creed I'm no interested. Bah.
@Churchy Probably.
What amazes me is that they're choosing to skip a year, the one year the film is coming out. You'd think that's the one year they'd definitely want some assassin's creed game out. But oh well, I'm actually really looking forward to watch dogs 2, it could be the AC2 of that series, meaning the first did all the groundwork and the second one will just perfect most rough aspects of it.
@get2sammyb OH MY RA , is that true , the new God of war set to be in Egypt ? wow awesome if it true , yes it about time that the game industry put Egypt in the map. by the way with love from Egypt Guys
personally ive never really liked the assasins creed series though i had a bit of fun with black flag (or whatever it was called). watchdogs on the other hand i liked quite a bit and never understood the negative press it got. im really excited to see what they do with it!
@get2sammyb I thought it was a bit harsh too. You know what's funny? I also wish Ready at dawn tried making a sequel to "the order 1866" and try bettering (is that a word! Lol)the first effort. So, for a watch dogs sequel that could be miles better than the first could be very interesting indeed! Maybe. 😂
Thank God for this...yearly releases are terrible! Egypt is a timeline I've been secretly hoping for for a long time. Cautiously optimistic here. Although Syndicate has been great this year.
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