When Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood releases this holiday, it will be the second year in a row for the franchise -- its third installment in total since its holiday 2007 debut. But don't expect that trend to continue: Ubisoft says it's going to give AC a year off in 2011, and that the gap will be good for avoiding fan fatigue.
Ubisoft Montreal's Jean Francois Boivin concedes that "business can come back and override everything I say because at the end of the day it's about selling games," but in an interview with Eurogamer he discusses why taking a year off would be good for everyone.
"You can't plow a field every year," he says. "Once every three years – or once every something – you have to let it breathe. You have to let the minerals back in. I think it's the same thing with any license, really."
He suggests that over-annualizing music game franchises might have contributed to their decline, as fans just aren't as excited about a property whose sequels are constantly available. "You gotta make people miss it a bit," He says. "It's like, 'Oh man! I'm so happy it's back!' But if you keep force-feeding to people then people are like, 'Yeah, enough of your Assassin's Creed'."
"I think we could do something really true to the license if we skip a year and release it in 2012 or 2013," says Boivin. But timing is still important -- "we need to keep it relatively close by, because we have to keep the interest there. I don't think we do a service to this license if we pull a Duke Nukem on people, you know what I'm saying?"
Although the team is pacing itself, Boivin tells Eurogamer that they've already decided where the series is going next. "It would lack vision and blunt intelligence to wing it episode after episode. We have to have some vision with the story. We very much do; we know all that stuff," he says.
Here's hoping other companies are listening. Either way, one year break still seems too small for my taste; specially after three consecutive games; still its better than no break at all.
This comes as a little bit of a surprise to me, specifically for Assassin's Creed. As concerning the plot of Assassin's Creed sticking to a november 2011 release date for AC3 would be very cool.
It's all good and well to speak the praises of avoiding over-annualization of a franchise...but my inner skeptic thinks the top brass at Ubisoft may not follow through after having a year without Assassin's Creed to bolster their annual revenue. Sad...but very likely.
Either way, this way of thinking deserves applause.
I think that AC3 will most likely take place in modern times...and you would be controlling Desmond and climbing skyscrapers and stuff. That was the impression I got from where the IRL story is headed after AC2 anyway. Naturally, this kind of simulation would require an extra year for development; and a year without an AC game would help to generate hype as well. Not to mention that (hopefully) after an extra year of dev time that the game would probably be a lot better! Personally, I've found myself wanting more from all of the AC games so far. Maybe Brotherhood will rememedy this.
Not to mention that this is an extra year for Ubisoft to milk AC:Brotherhood DLCs...and with the upcoming online multiplayer, it will be even easier for them.
Either way, this way of thinking deserves applause.
Not to mention that this is an extra year for Ubisoft to milk AC:Brotherhood DLCs...and with the upcoming online multiplayer, it will be even easier for them.