Buckle up for some interesting Assassin's Creed rumors coming from the Internet this morning. It seems that the gaming franchise will be taking a much-needed break in 2016, and will not be releasing a new entry to the Assassin's Creed story. Assassin's Creed is said to be coming back in 2017 though, and will be set in Egypt. Before assuming all of this as truth, please take this news with a mountain of salt.
Reports of Assassin's Creed skipping 2016 come from the most untrustworthy of places, 4chan. This news comes by way of Autoomobile. There, a user who claims to be a developer said the following:
"Egypt. There won’t be an AC in 2016. You may screencap this and refer to it when nothing is shown in E3 2016. You’ll have to wait until 2017 for it. The reason: It will be a complete revamp of the series. The game is going for a Witcher feel, with player progression, freeform combat system. Horse is back, and boats too. It s made by the Black Flag team. You may leave any question you want answered."
Not only does this user seem confident that Assassin's Creed is skipping 2016, he/she also seems to know that the franchise will expand to Egypt with the next installment. This could be an exciting setting for the franchise, giving Ubisoft a chance to kind of re-visit their Prince of Persia roots.
The post also mentions that the sailing of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is also set to return, as well as horseback riding. There will also be a progression system, with players being able to upgrade their character to get stronger as the story progresses.
In a potentially related note, thanks to the eagle-eyed users of video game forum NeoGAF (specifically user ekim, who made the original post), it seems publisher Ubisoft is looking to bring back some older Assassin's Creed games. This is all rumor and speculation, but it's based off the fact Ubisoft has registered a new website domain: assassinscreedcollection.com.
While the website isn't active yet, it does seem to paint the picture that Ubisoft is planning on releasing a collection of older Assassin's Creed games. This isn't too shocking, as we have seen collections of other older games for quite some time now, including the Uncharted series and all of Rare Replay. Obviously nothing has been announced, but it's probably safe to assume an Assassin's Creed Collection would include the first Assassin's Creed and probably also include all three games of the Ezio trilogy.
While a collection of Assassin's Creed games isn't too shocking, what it could mean for the franchise is. If Ubisoft takes the time to really shine up the first few Assassin's Creed games for Xbox One and PS4 (and possibly PC), that means they will not be spending as much time on making a new Assassin's Creed game. This is definitely another clue that 2016 could possibly only see a release of the Assassin's Creed Collection, with no new entries in the franchise.
Frankly, this is what Ubisoft needs. The Assassin's Creed franchise has really started spiraling away from fans, as evidenced by the lackluster launches of both Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Assassin's Creed Unity. There has also been a huge lack of narrative cohesion, especially with the Desmond Miles story having ended. A year-long break could really help the developers settle down and figure out how they want the franchise to play out moving forward.
Of course, it should again be noted that all of this is just speculation. We've seen Ubisoft release two Assassin's Creed games in a year before (with Unity and Assassin's Creed Rogue) so it isn't out of the realm of possibility this collection and a new Assassin's Creed game could be released in 2016.
So what do you think? Does the possibility of Assassin's Creed in Egypt get you hyped? Are you more interested in the possibility of an Assassin's Creed Collection? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
