The Assassin is Taking a Year Off to Watch Dogs
It’s been a hair over a month since Kotaku posted a rumor saying the Assassin’s Creed series would be taking a break this year, one key detail among a slew of potentially legitimate info. It was ostensibly believable given Kotaku’s track record with previous rumors involving the franchise — to the extent that Ubisoft blacklisted the site from receiving review copies and exclusive info.
But this was one rumor I had a difficult time believing.
The series has trucked along with annual releases for so long that it’s tough to fathom the mere thought of it missing a year; this year, especially, considering the Michael Fassbender-led film will arrive in late-December. It was the perfect opportunity for a tie-in, similar to the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie receiving a video game story successor in The Forgotten Sands, franchise fatigue be damned.
Now that Ubisoft has confirmed its veracity, there’s no need for further doubt. The company had the resources to pump out another title quickly, and hold everyone off for one that’s intended to revitalize the AC formula arrives, but a break was the best decision given how fatigued many are with the series. Despite AC being a formidable franchise, it’s not as seemingly impenetrable as Activision’s Call of Duty.
Since measuring the amount of fatigue through online comments is difficult (since there’s no way to determine whether they represent the majority), Ubisoft needed more tangible proof, which they received through last year’s installment. Throughout the AC team’s statement, there was coded language implying that Assassin’s Creed Syndicate sold below expectations. Not that Ubisoft should have expected much, since it was the first AC installment following Assassin’s Creed Unity and its associated debacle, and that franchise fatigue will inevitably manifest for any annual franchise. Given that it’s reportedly one of the best installments in years, though, it’s nonetheless a shame Syndicate had to be an unfortunate victim.
So it’s good that Ubisoft decided now was the best time to let it rest, lest brand damage could become irreparable with yet another quick-but-predictable installment. Their development teams will be working harder in concocting and crafting a new installment that will ideally bring disillusioned fans back to the franchise, along with a potentially larger new audience outside them.
They can partly win back fans through choosing just the right location and time period they’d to experience. If the aforementioned rumor was true, the info which said the next installment would take place in Egypt could be too. This would also come with an overhauling of AC (and, by extension, Ubisoft’s) traditional mission design and clunky controls for a more organic and polished experience, perhaps taking inspiration from cdProjekt Red’s The Witcher 3. Opinions are mixed on whether that game provides good combat, but there’s been nigh-unanimous praise for its sidequests and world-building. Media outlets gave the title an overwhelming amount of Game of the Year awards, so it’s no surprise that developers at big publishing houses want to take inspiration from it.
But they’ll have to work on implementing those features to enhance the overall experience, and not simply inserting them to check a AAA design box. That they’re taking a year off to get this right makes me hope the former will come to pass, but that comes with a healthy dose of skepticism thanks to Ubisoft’s overall approach to development. Their open world games in the last few years have all been very similar to each other (collect these items of minimal importance, climb this tower, build up the home base to generate money, etc.), complete with maps listing the minutest of details that reduce the sense of discovery. The similarities are expected when these games are designed by disconnected teams around the world. There’s little chance of this title not having elements of Ubisoft’s traditional open world design, but an optimistic part of me is hoping they overcome this through more cooperation.
Confirmation that a new Watch Dogs sequel is coming in the next fiscal year (i.e. sometime before March 2017) lends further credence to Kotaku’s sources. It’s too early to tell whether it’s coming this fall in lieu of a new AC title, but it would be surprising if it wasn’t. Similar to the above Egypt AC game, I hope the team has been given time to rework elements which hindered the first game from being as good as it could have been– or good at all. Merely having a likable protagonist would go a long way, along with vastly improved driving controls. That its developers are promising the game will have “radical” changes is tubular encouraging.
It will be a while before the new AC game is revealed, but expect the next Watch Dogs to surface sometime before E3 — either through an online reveal or a Game Informer cover story. We should get an understanding of where Ubisoft’s developers want to take the franchise, and if its changes are the right kind of “radical,” dude.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
