Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is only two months old, but already rumors are flying about Ubisoft’s next neck-stabbing simulator and, surprisingly, the game may be further away than you might think.
Yesterday an “Ubisoft insider” started leaking all sorts of information about the next Assassin’s Creed game on 4Chan (don’t worry, that link goes to NeoGAF), which we usually wouldn’t report on, but since then Kotaku and other gaming websites have corroborated the news via their own sources.
According to the scuttlebutt, the game will be called Assassin’s Creed Empire and will be set in ancient Egypt. The game will take place before the founding of either the Assassins of Templars and will essentially act as a prequel/reboot of the series. It may also be the start of a new trilogy starring the same character, which would continue on in Rome and Greece.
Even more interesting than the setting are reports that Assassin’s Creed Empire won’t be coming out in 2016. This would make 2016 the first year since 2009 not to have a major Assassin’s Creed release (this year will see the release of the smaller-scale platformers Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: India and Russia). Apparently the decision to give Empire more development time was made after the negative public reaction to 2014’s Assassin’s Creed Unity. Last year’s Assassin’s Creed Syndicate hasn’t set the world on fire either, selling under 3 million copies so far, making it the slowest-selling mainline Assassin’s Creed title to date.
This is probably the best move Ubisoft could have made. I was a fan of earlier Assassin’s Creed games, but somewhere along the way I fell off the Assassin’s Creed train and haven’t had a chance to get back on with new entries coming at such a rapid pace, and I know I’m not the only one. I think everybody — gamers, Ubisoft, the Assassin’s Creed developers — need a moment to take a breath before starting up again on more solid footing.
What do you think of the rumored Egyptian setting? Glad Assassin’s Creed might be taking a year off, or have you become accustomed to the annual releases?
(via Kotaku)