We've all experienced franchise fatigue, and it's something that Ubisoft Montreal's Jean-Francois Boivin wants to avoid with Assassin's Creed, a series that will see a new release in 2010 (Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood) on the heels of a release in 2009 (Assassin's Creed II).
In a gem of an interview with Eurogamer, Boivin expressed his desire to give the franchise a rest after Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and used the music game genre, which recently experienced a slump most likely as a result of its sequel-itis, as a rightly plucked point to explain why he thinks AC needs a rest.
"Honestly, I think for the benefit of everybody--and business can come back and override everything I say because at the end of the day it's about selling games--I believe that this license needs a breather," Boivin said. "You can't plough a field every year. Once every three years--or once every something--you have to let it breathe. You have to let the minerals back in. I think it's the same thing with any license, really.
== TEASER =="We can see a lot of the music games that are releasing year after year--the interest is a lot less than it used to be. The excitement is a lot less than it used to be. You want to keep people excited," he explained. "You gotta make people miss it a bit. It's like, 'Oh man! I'm so happy it's back!' But if you keep force-feeding to people then people are like, 'Yeah, enough of your Assassin's Creed'.
Boivin said Brotherhood will spell the "end of Ezio's story," and he doesn't think there will be a new game in 2011. But that doesn't mean we won't see one in 2012 or even 2013, as Boivin believes Ubisoft could do something "true" to Assassin's Creed in one of those years.
If you're wondering what exactly you might see from the future of the Assassin's Creed franchise, you'll have to wait. Boivin did, however, have a little tease to share with Eurogamer: "…It's the story of Desmond Miles, and it's the story of a machine called an Animus that reads genetic memories from your ancestors. It has to stay in there," he said, speaking to how the series' plot and mechanics need to be justified.