New rumors in the gaming industry hint that Ubisoft might skip 2016 for the release of a new "Assassin's Creed" game.
According to speculations, this could be the developer's way of building anticipation from consumers following the failed launch of 2014's "Assassin's Creed Unity."
As noted by Kotaku, Ubisoft has made it a point to unveil new entries in the "Assassin's Creed" franchise every year since 2009. For this year, however, it seems gamers will not get to play a new installment from the series.
Instead, an anonymous source who claims to be familiar with Ubisoft's operations said that the upcoming "Assassin's Creed" game, which will be reportedly titled "Empire," will arrive in 2017. The insider said that studio allegedly came to this decisions because of how the disappointing release of "Unity" affected the sales of last year's "Assassin's Creed Syndicate."
Apparently, the technical issues, bugs and glitches that riddled the game on day one were enough to dissuade a number of gamers, including fans of the series, from purchasing the latest game for the franchise.
As noted by Ubisoft head Yves Guillemot, the sales of "Syndicate" was saved by gamers who actually played the game and saw its quality.
"We seem to experience the same sales curve as ['Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag']," he said according to Eurogamer. "Versus 'Unity,' 'Syndicate' was down in the first week but nicely outperformed it in its second week as it benefitted from positive word of mouth."
From a marketing perspective, releasing the game two years after the last one could build up the anticipation of gamers and hopefully help them forget about the disastrous "Unity" launch. And, with the upcoming release of the live-action film adaption of "Assassin's Creed" featuring Michael Fassbender, it could help Ubisoft in promoting the upcoming game even more.
As for what gamers can expect to see in "Assassin's Creed Empire," rumors indicate that it will be set in Egypt and the main character will be linked to the slaves who built the pyramids.
Of course, since these details did not come from Ubisoft directly, contents of the upcoming game, its actual release date and even its title, cannot be confirmed yet.
Although the studio recently released a statement to Gamespot regarding the rumors, it only briefly talked about the upcoming film based on the series.
"We can't comment on rumor or speculation," a representative from the company said. "We're always happy when players are excited about our games, past, present and future."
"In the meantime, we hope that the latest images from the 'Assassin's Creed' movie set will keep fans of the franchise happy and eager to find out more," the spokesperson added.
