That was quick
The Assassin’s Creed franchise goes through a little routine each spring where someone leaks information about the next installment in the series before Ubisoft can properly make the announcement. Tradition’s true to form again this time ’round, but it’s taking place a bit earlier than usual — mere weeks after the most recent games were released.
According to Kotaku, it’s obtained information and seen footage of the new Assassin’s Creed title, which is set in Victorian London. It’s either called or simply code-named Victory, and will only appear on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, just like this year’s Unity. However, it’s said that there’s no accompanying game in the works such as Rogue to placate last-gen users.
The primary studio working on Victory is Ubisoft Quebec — a departure from the Montreal team that usually heads Assassin’s Creed titles. Of course, given that this is Ubisoft, it’s a certainty that almost every one of its offices across the globe will have some hand in this effort.
Ubisoft responded to our inquiry for comment with a semi-confirmation of the title’s legitimacy. The publisher’s statement in full to Destructoid is: “It is always unfortunate when internal assets, not intended for public consumption, are leaked. And, while we certainly welcome anticipation for all of our upcoming titles, we’re disappointed for our fans, and our development team, that this conceptual asset is now public. The team in our Quebec studio has been hard at work on the particular game in question for the past few years, and we’re excited to officially unveil what the studio has been working on at a later date. In the meantime, our number one priority is enhancing the experience of Assassin’s Creed Unity for players.”
In his piece on Kotaku, Jason Schreier states that he’s seen a seven-minute “target gameplay” video that looks polished enough to be an E3 demonstration. It highlights some firsts for the series such as fighting on top of moving vehicles, and a grappling hook for speedy traversal. It also looks to have some new UI features, like the interface blending into gameplay — something that was shown to us at an E3 demo of Unity, but never made it into the final game.
We’ll have to wait for Ubisoft’s official reveal of this project, but this seems like a legitimate look. Some may be burned out on the annual iterations of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and that’s perfectly understandable. Those who aren’t can prepare for anarchy in the UK.
Next Year’s Big Assassin’s Creed Is Set In Victorian London [Kotaku]