It was recently revealed that the next Assassin’s Creed game will be called “Assassin’s Creed Infinity,” and it will be a live service game developed by a comibination of Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec. After the success of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and its live game functionality, it’s not very surprising to see Ubisoft head in this direction for Assassin’s Creed, but is it the right direction? Well, to many die-hard Assassin’s Creed fans: no, it probably isn’t. To newer fans, as well as more open-minded players, this is definitely an interesting option for the future of Assassin’s Creed. So, what exactly do we know about Assassin’s Creed Infinity so far? Is Games As A Service really the right choice for Assassin’s Creed?
Development
Assassin’s Creed Infinity will be developed in a “collaborative, cross-studio structure between Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec that will guide, grow, evolve, and define the overall future of Assassin’s Creed that includes an important upcoming, early-in-development project codenamed Assassin’s Creed Infinity.” This new collaborative studio is set to be led by Marc-Alexis Côté, who will serve as the executive producer of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Côté will be working alongside Ubisoft Montreal’s Étienne Allonier, who has been the brand director of Assassin’s Creed for the last ten years, as well as their respective teams to ensure that the Assassin’s Creed franchise “continues to exceed the expectations of fans who have been asking for a more cohesive approach to its development for the past several years.” This is certainly an interesting way to approach the future of Assassin’s Creed, by essentially merging two different Ubisoft studios, while also not merging them, we’ll see how that ends up working out. Now, that’s for the future of Assassin’s Creed as a whole, but what about Assassin’s Creed Infinity, specifically? Well, joint production efforts on Assassin’s Creed Infinity are looking to be led by Ubisoft Montreal’s Julien Laferrière, who has now been named senior producer, who will be overseeing production at both studios. He’s worked on Assassin’s Creed since 2007, and has recently become the producer on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
As far as creatively, here’s what Ubisoft had to say, “Creative leads for Assassin’s Creed Infinity will be a cross-studio collaboration, as well. Jonathan Dumont and Clint Hocking will share leadership as creative directors, overseeing their respective teams at Ubisoft Quebec and Ubisoft Montreal. Dumont was previously world director on Assassin’s Creed Syndicate at Ubisoft Quebec before becoming creative director on Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Meanwhile, this moment marks Hocking’s return to Ubisoft Montreal, having started at the studio in 2001 as a level designer, game designer, and scriptwriter on the original Splinter Cell before becoming creative director on Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Far Cry 2, and most recently Watch Dogs: Legion.”
Assassin’s Creed Infinity
Assassin’s Creed is changing pretty massively from a developmental standpoint, but what about the game itself? Is Assassin’s Creed changing? Well, the short answer is yes, Assassin’s Creed will probably never be the same as you remember. Whether or not this is a good thing or a bad thing is entirely up to you to decide. Supposedly, Assassin’s Creed Infinity is an evolving platform with multiple settings, the games are connected but feel and/or look different, and is inspired by the financial success of Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto: Online. Surprise, Assassin’s Creed Infinity isn’t actually a single game – or at least we don’t think it is – but rather a platform for different Assassin’s Creed games. So, what does this mean, exactly? Well….it could mean a lot of things, but the one thing that I think you can expect without a shadow of a doubt is that this entirely revolves around the possible monetary gains that Ubisoft can pull out of this. Epic Games has done the same exact thing with Fortnite and has made boatloads of money, Rockstar did the same thing with Grand Theft Auto V and continues to make money nearly a decade later. It’s pretty clear that the decision to make Assassin’s Creed a live-service game comes almost entirely from a financial standpoint. However, with that being said, it does strike a bit of curiosity within me that wants nothing more than to see what this whole thing actually ends up to be.
I could end up being entirely wrong, and Ubisoft doesn’t actually toss in a few hundred microtransactions into Assassin’s Creed Infinity, but with the way that video games look nowadays, I just find it hard to believe that’s going to be the case.
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