I feel like the next game will be called Assassin's Creed V. They could pretend that Unity was just a stop gap before the real next generation of Assassin's Creed. It always felt weird to me that they didn't attach a number to Unity but they might have not wanted to take the risk. Now they have an out with at least the casual audience for the AC games.

Obviously when naming Unity, they couldn't have foreseen the reaction it would get and the naming might have been done to remove themselves from the previous games and get new players to the series. Now though, they may need to call it AC V in an attempt to get back the current fans of the series. The last time they released a game where they significantly changed the systems in the game(AC III), they attached a number to it but the reaction to that game wasn't universally great. Ubisoft may not have wanted to take the same risk again and whatever the next game is, will be the equivalent of what ACIV was for ACIII.

Obviously I'm talking mostly out of my ass but that's my guess.

Yeah I would be surprised if the next AC isn't called 5 to distance itself from Unity. Their stock dropped 9.3% because of the various shitstorms Unity generated and I'm sure they never ever want to acknowledge that again after they are done their damage control.

We'll know at next years E3. They could call it V, but I don't think anyone really cares at this moment. Do numbered sequels really matter that much?

Game companies don't use numbers anymore for the sequels. That's because some of the games just become silly numbered (Call of Duty 4: Modern Warface 3: Black Ops 2) and also because there's a chance people won't buy it because they haven't played the entries before.

Except for Final Fantasy ofcourse ..

Except Far Cry 4...another Ubisoft game. And Dead Rising. And...well, you get the picture.

What they need is a break, a year off. Go back to the drawing board and get it right.

It's entirely possible. I can't think of a reason why Ubisoft added a "IV" to Black Flag, except to quickly and cheaply distance the game from III. That said, Ubisoft needs to do some serious damage control. Releasing a game with this many bugs and glitches can start to taint the series' reputation as a whole. The next AC game could be a huge step up from Unity, but I wouldn't be surprised if fewer people bought it after having their experience soured by Unity.

Yeah but it's Ubisoft. There has been at least one Assassin's Creed game every year for the last seven years or something. They just make too much money for Ubisoft to slow down making them.

They should just start naming them like sports games.

I personally can't wait to see how bad Assassin's Creed 2016 Nu [for next-gen consoles] and Assassin's Creed 2016 Vintage [for last-gen consoles] are going to be and just how much stupidity Ubi's PR department will shit out of their mouths.

Declining sells would send a pretty strong message I think.

Assassin's Creed V: We're Sorry

Assassin's Creed V: Modern Assassinfare

Assassin's Creed V: Origins; Reckoning; Unleashed; GOTY edition

I'm open to offers Ubi.

No.

Assassin's Creed Embargo

I wouldn't be surprised. Unity seems... troubled. Numbering the next one "V" would distance itself from Unity the same way Black Flag did with AC3.

But are the sales actually declining? I mean people talk a lot but there are still a lot of people out there who still blindly preorder games, and even more people who just buy games straight off the shelf because it says Assassin's Creed or Madden from the local Wal-Mart and don't pay attention to reviews or online communities like ours.

I know it's too soon to compare Unity's sales to Black Flag's, but don't underestimate the Ubisoft marketing machine or their willingness to keep churning out annual editions of games when they're still making money. Maybe not as much money, but this game will probably still be quite profitable so I don't see Ubisoft changing their behavior anytime soon.

If there isn't at least one AC game in 2015 I would be absolutely shocked.

nope it will be something else

Oh there will be one in 2015, its probably far ahead in development already. But 2016?

At the very least, AC: Rogue will be coming to PC in 2015. Maybe also releasing that on next-gen consoles would be enough to fill the 2015 slot while they work on the next big installment.

@demonbear: Well...they haven't skipped an Assassin's Creed year since 2008, so chances are strong that the annual installment trend will continue.

I'm not saying they won't. I'm saying they shouldn't.

According to this article there will be no more numbered Assassin's Creed games. But they don't source the interview that they mention in the article, so who knows if this is real or not.

Assassin's Creed: Renovation

Assassin's Greed amirite?

I'm not certain they need a year off necessarily (the quality of AC4 arguably shows that) but trying to make an Assassin's Creed and a Pirate's Creed game in the same year was always likely to be biting off more than they could chew. You'd think the better idea would have been on alternating between City-Based and Ship-Based, which would give them 2 years between each type at least and give them a chance to keep them both fresh.

There's really no excuse for Unity feeling as tired as it apparently does - they've had 3 years since the last city-based AC to think about how they're going to trim some of the bloat and freshen up that gameplay, and they've just completely neglected to do it. They aren't going to have the luxury of carrying on phoning it in now that they potentially have some genuine competition in the form of Middle-Earth. The LOTR connection makes that franchise a genuine threat if it keeps moving forward while AC keeps standing still.

will there be an abstergo arch? After 3 the whole Desmond storyline was all taken care of now after 4 - Black Flag it's all about Abstergo. It'd be nice if they numbered them for a story arch to fallow.