Assassin’s Creed has joined with Call of Duty and other annual franchises to become a yearly tradition for fans. For the last few years there has been at least one new main series Assassin’s Creed game released, but if recent rumors are to be believed that tradition will be coming to an end in 2016.
The rumors began on 4chan, a notably unreliable source where anyone can claim to be anything, where a poster claimed to be an Ubisoft employee with knowledge of the upcoming game. Many doubted the proclamation, however, once fans compiled all of the statements together they began looking more believable. Now Kotaku has backed them up saying that “everything he wrote matches up with what I’ve heard independently for months.”
So, what are these rumors exactly? In short, that Ubisoft will be skipping 2016 for the usual AC release, instead focusing on getting a better product out in 2017. That game is codenamed Empire and will be set in Egypt.
Getting into more of the specifics, according to the anonymous source Assassin’s Creed Empire would be set before any other game in the series, essentially making it a prequel to the entire franchise. The story would take place before the Assassins or Templars had even been founded.
“This one has a lot more story than any of the rest. Going back to Ancient Egypt means they can do whatever they want, without “historical accuracy” to hold them back…You play as a slave or ex-slave. He looks a lot like Altair, but with a darker skin…He is not edgy, from my understanding. He’s a nobody that barely speaks.”
The source began answering questions from other people, with an emphasis being around the recycled nature of past AC games. “I believe the next one is going to have a lot less recycling, which is nice…No, the world is made from scratch. No recycling. The only recycling is animation and even then, this one will change most of it. As far as recycling goes, this next one will have the least amount of it.”
The news that no main Assassin’s Creed game is coming this year has actually met with a lot of praise from fans. The series has done well with its most recent entry, but overall the franchise has felt stale for a while. Many hope that the extra development time will mean a true return to form for the games.
