No New ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Game in 2016

Joey Sack ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

Photo Credit: www.ps4source.de

Confirming a rumor that started earlier this year, Ubisoft announced in a statement that 2016 is the first year since 2008 in which there will be no new main game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. With the release of the Assassin’s Creed movie this December, fans of the series will still have that to look forward to, but in terms of games, all fans are left with is speculation about what this announcement means for the future of this franchise.

According to the statement, Ubisoft has been listening to consumer feedback since Assassin’s Creed Unity to rework aspects of the series to create an enjoyable open world gaming experience. The fact that Syndicate was a vast improvement over Unity shows Ubisoft heading in the right direction in terms of future games, and as long as they keep listening to their fans, future installments should restore faith in this beloved franchise.

However, “re-examining” the franchise can mean a number of things, from new directions in which to take the games in terms of stories, and perhaps a way to end the series altogether. They’ve pretty much gone past the Desmond Miles storyline, so there are more possibilities in that respect, and there are plenty of historical eras in which to set an Assassin’s Creed game. Another idea, and this is mere speculation, could be the further minimizing of the modern storyline, which, while interesting, has become less and less important as this series has progressed (in Unity and Syndicate, the modern story was completely relegated to cutscenes). Maybe they could start to fully wrap up the modern storyline and simply give gamers stories that are fully set in the past, without the virtual reality aspect. Again, speculation, but it’s only natural with an announcement like this.

The statement also mentions the Assassin’s Creed movie, starring Michael Fassbender, which is set to hit theaters on December 21^st, 2016. The statement makes mention of the sets and replicas of Assassin weaponry, and the team at Ubisoft appears to be very excited to see the Assassin’s Creed mythos hit the big screen. From the promotional images released thus far, it’s difficult to see one way or the other how this film will hold up, especially when you think back to other video game film adaptations. Super Mario Brothers, anyone? Alone in the Dark? Hitman? Hitman: Agent 47? The list goes on, but if the creative team behind the film have the same respect for the source material as the people who made this series what it is today, who knows? Maybe Assassin’s Creed will be the one to bring us a good video game movie.

Please read the official statement on Ubisoft’s blog, linked below. Feel free to speculate about the future of the Assassin’s Creed franchise down below, and stay tuned for more Assassin’s Creed news.