Posted Thu Jan 7, 2016 at 01:13 PM PST by Justin Clark
They also might have one heck of a reason for that.
'Assassin's Creed Syndicate' managed to buy back a lot of lost goodwill from the 'Unity' debacle, but if the rumors are true, we might be waiting a while to see if they can capitalize.
Rumors are swirling around multiple, credible sources that UbiSoft will be letting 'Assassin's Creed' sit out 2016. Not that the franchise won't remain fresh in everyone's minds--there's still the 'Last Maharajah' DLC coming for 'Syndicate'; 'Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India' hits next week, 'Russia' next month; the Michael Fassbender 'Assassin's Creed' movie is still slated for a December 21st release date--but this will be the first year without a new major 'AC' game since 2009. Seven years of annual releases is more than enough to earn the franchise a rest, especially with the series straining under the pressure of keeping up. The rumor mill says 'Watch Dogs 2' will be Ubi's AAA season cash cow for the year, with that game taking place in San Francisco, but, that's a complete mystery at the moment.
The big rumor, however, that has a bit more weight to it, is that Ubi might be benching the series this year so it can laser focus on the next title in the series, currently code-named 'Assassin's Creed: Empire', which, along with majorly overhauling the series' tried-and-true mechanics, will also be going somewhere I'd been dying to see since the first game's final, fateful, Eagle Eye moment: Egypt.
The source with the most detail appears to be an alleged UbiSoft dev posting anonymously at 4chan, which would be enough to cock an eyebrow normally, but Kotaku's Stephen Totilo appears to be vetting the info, stating "everything he wrote matches up with what I’ve heard independently for months."
An intrepid NeoGAF user has compiled the juiciest tidbits from the dev's 4chan adventures, but the big three facts to get excited about were in one handy post:
"The game is going for a 'Witcher' feel, with player progression, freeform combat system. Horse is back, and boats too. It's made by the 'Black Flag' team."
All of these are wonderful things to hear. Chances are fairly strong as well, considering the number of credible outlets with sources corroborating the facts. Suppose the truth will out when E3 2016 rolls around and there's a sudden lack of wristshanks.
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