Next Assassin's Creed Game Delayed to 2017, Ubisoft Confirms

Ubisoft confirms that the next Assassin's Creed game won't arrive until 2017.

Ubisoft confirmed that it has indeed delayed the next Assassin's Creedto 2017, effectively breaking the chain of yearly installments that the company implemented back in 2010. The publisher said in a blog post:

This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin’s Creed franchise. As a result, we’ve decided that there will not be a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2016. Since the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, we’ve learned a lot based on your feedback. We’ve also updated our development processes and recommitted to making Assassin’s Creed a premier open-world franchise. We’re taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we’re delivering on the promise of Assassin’s Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone’s playground.

This could be a good thing for the franchise, which has suffered a bad case of fatigue since the release of the terribly flawed Assassin's Creed Unity in 2014. A deep breath and some work on the next game's mechanics and story could do this franchise a lot of good when it returns in 2017.

Original Story 01.04.16:

I'm going to file this one under "good news": a new report from Kotakusuggests that the next Assassin's Creed game won't be out until 2017, giving Ubisoft a bit more time to work on the next installment in the franchise, which is codenamed "Empire." This would be the first time we wouldn't get a yearly installment in the series since 2009.

"Empire" reportedly takes place in Egypt and is the first chapter in a trilogy of games about the same Assassin, which is not unlike the trilogy starring Ezio Auditore from 2009-2011. (Those were the golden days, in my humble opinion.) This new trilogy could also explore Greece and Rome around the same time period, according to Kotaku.

Kotaku also revealed that the decision to move "Empire" from Fall 2016 to 2017 was made after the Unitydebacle, which finally showed the deep wrinkles in the series after years jam-packed with new ACgames. In case you don't remember, Unity was Ubisoft's first current-gen Assassin's Creed game and it was a broken mess. My guess is that Syndicate's sales were directly affected by its predecessor's failures, which is unfortunate since the latest game is pretty good...

But more of the same has to become a hard sell at some point when pitched on a yearly basis. It looks like franchise fatigue has finally hit Assassin's Creed.