Sources: Next Big Assassin's Creed Set In Egypt, Skipping 2016 As Part of Possible Series Slowdown

So Kotaku are reporting that sources have leaked info on the next Assassin's Creed which will be called Assassin's Creed: Empire and will be a prequel to the original games set in Ancient Egypt before the Assassin and Templar factions were formed. The plans are to potentially spin main character of Empire out in a trilogy that will eventually take him\her to Rome.

Kotaku are also reporting that Ubisoft are taking a break from there yearly cycle to better polish the game as well as combat series fatigue. Other sites have been reporting that Empire will be more similar to the original Creed games with multiple cities connected by an over world and will be inspired by the Witcher.

So if all this turns out to be true how would you guys feel about this?

I think slowing it down is definitely a step in the right direction.

I'd also personally like it if they'd reevaluate using the Ubisoft Open World Formula for every game they ever make, but we'll see.

I hope this pans out because a year off and a completely fresh setting are two things Assassin's Creed desperately needs. Plus, ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome would all be terrific locations to explore.

Sounds great. I used to really enjoy the AC games, but fell off because it just became too much(and the quality went down). I am not opposed to more AC games, I just can't handle a new one every year.

Egypt sounds cool and Witcher as inspiration sound interesting. But Ubi better give me China or Japan before they fully run this franchise into the ground.

Damn this sounds right up my ally, love ancient history. Sucks they are taking a year break though, out of all the Assassins Creed games they choose to take a break with it's the one I'm most interested in.

@aktivity: I remember them saying saying they would never do Japan beacuse it's too much a trope with ninjas and ect also they did just do that Assassin's Creed Chronicles set in China.

If this all pans out then it might actually get me to buy an AssCreed game which I haven't done since Brotherhood.

Prince of Persia time . That is all ..

Ashraf Ismail is the only AC Director who truly understands Patrice's vision. This game will revive AC critically, and fiscally. Ancient Egypt set AC is just what this series needs with it's recent fatigue.

@jonny_anonymous: They'll get there eventually, at some point all they'll have left is Japan and China. If they want to keep things fresh they won't have a choice. I doubt they'll keep a country like China to the Chronicles stuff only. There's too much history and potential there. The only thing making me come back to AC is the new locations, I'm getting of this train if they start going back to previously done locations.

Oh damn that reminds me, I wonder if they will reuse stuff they worked on for Osiris

That would be cool if the protagonist was like Zasalamel from soulcalibur.

Jesus! The only good one that interested people in the last few years was AC: IV with the pirates and the boats. You can't beat pirates (well except maybe ninjas) and the boat thing was FUN! Pistols, swords, cannons, swing through the rigging....it was a nuatural fit to the gameplay!

Ubisoft needs to stop screwing around, and go back to what worked. People like the pirates and the boats, players just wanted it to be less boring in the missions. What they hell is so hard about that?

I hope it gets back to being good again. After Black Flag seemingly set up so much potential stuff, then immediately threw it away, I lost interest. The games were just coming out too fast and were too similar to one another.

Black Flag is my favorite because when they went whole hog onto the naval combat, it worked wonders. Then they just fucked off to doing the same meandering shit again. "Climb that tower. Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh that guy in the face and neck. Chase this guy even though you can easily catch him but we don't let you do it until you've seen our incredible set pieces!"

I hope they at least try to make new things.

@monkeyking1969 said:

I'd be shocked if Ubisoft weren't working on spinning Black Flag out into a separate franchise, which I think makes way more sense than establishing naval combat as a pillar of the AC franchise. The traditional Assassin's Creed gameplay loop was easily the worst part of Black Flag, so a game stripped of that stuff could be incredible.

Yeah shoehorning naval combat in to every game would seriously hamper the settings that could be used.

This sounds potentially cool. If any series needs to pump the brakes and cool off the yearly release schedule, it's Assassin's Creed.

as i was playing syndicate, i was thinking they should do exactly this. glad to hear it, finally assassins creed games will be better more consistently.

I love this. Sounds like good news all around.

Honestly all they would have to do is just get rid of all the dumb Ubisoft side objective nonsense that plagues most of their games. I don't mind the vantage points, meeting historical figures, or even the combat for that matter. What really bugs me with these games is the excess amount of collectibles, side missions, and mission objectives that play out all in the exact same way. Which I guess you could say all open world games suffer from this, but I think the problem with AC is that pretty much during and after the Ezio trilogy the game was starting to get stale really fast and the novelty was wearing off pretty quick. Which is so surprising to see how it's still pretty much the same, even with Syndicate. I really wish they would take some things from Rockstar or CD Projekt in making a great story driven open world game that trims the Ubisoft fat down to a nice smooth experience.

Inspired by the Witcher? The fuck does that mean?

Note: It does make sense to be super open worldy in this era of open worldiness; though they kind of already did that with AC3. They can also really fuck around with Historical stuff, the further you go back the less corny it seems to insert XYZ random historical character.

Really hope that taking a year off pays off for them. There have been far too many half-baked games in this series, but I still really enjoy most of the gameplay in these games. Ancient Egypt could be a really cool setting as well.

Question is then, what's the big open world game that comes out next fall? They release one (if not two) every holiday, with established franchises. It's likely built into their financials. If The Division and Far Cry Primal are first half of 2016, and the next South Park game and For Honor don't fit the model, then what? Ghost Recon: Cocaine Adventures? Watch Dogs 2: We're Sorry About The First Game?

Also, isn't the movie with Fassbender supposed to be out next holiday? Wouldn't they want something out at roughly the same time?

This might be a really, really bad idea. AC3's frontier system was a shameless attempt to rip off Red Dead Redemption's open world. Navigating AC3's open world was more tedious and boring than my fucking high school Algebra class.

Did I mention that I hated Assassin's Creed 3: Little House On The Prairie with a passion?

Egypt could be a really damn cool setting, but I'd love to see 1893's Chicago (I really have to finish The Devil In The White City), the Russian Revolution (in an actual mainline AC game), or even Berlin.in the early 30's. Then again, the last idea would probably be a serious downer of a game.

Slowing it down might be good. Not sure on the setting, but it will certainly be better then the Japanese thing people keep begging for.

That's because that Black Flag was the least Assassin's Creed game they ever made. One can argue that Black Flag was not "really" an AC game.

I know it's a bit off topic, but wasn't it Kotaku who ran an editorial a few months ago whining about how Ubisoft "black listing" them for leaking info about upcoming AC games? That web site. Always full of entertainment.

I completely agree. Kind of obvious as soon as Black Flag was well received that they needed to spin that into its own thing and then alternate annually between regular city-based AC game and Pirate Game. They'd be different enough to give both a chance of remaining fresh.

That said, as much as people slam Ubisoft for not giving AC a year off so, I don't think they've actually done too badly considering how quickly they're churning them out. Black Flag was fresh and ambitious, while Syndicate was well executed and addressed quite a lot of gameplay issues which needed addressing. There have been misses of course, but overall I'd say AC's hit:miss ratio stacks up quite favourably compared to most other long running franchises.

As for the rumours: Roman empire trilogy gets a big thumbs up from me.

Yeah Kotaku have published leaked info on a bunch of AssCreed games in the past so Ubi blacklisted them. So I mean why not right? If you are blacklisted already may as well put out everything you've got.

That sounds ok to me although they should just make either the feudal Japan game we all want or finally give ezio's Chinese apprentice her own full game.

For some reason i am not that into Egypt as the time period. Still wondering why Ubisoft still hasnt done a main assassin creed game which would take place in china. The country has an amazing history and the setting would be unlike any other previous assasin creed game (culture, clothes, buildings and so on).

The closer they go back to Assassins Creed 1 the better. The latter games were fun but they all got so far away from what that game was aspiring to be in that very first entry. I was psyched to play this babylonian Hitman game, and then they kind of turned it into something different. You were no longer an assassin, Ezio was just a thug with a hidden blade in every sleeve. I would be happy if they returned to the more intimate style of gameplay of AC1 where you stalk your prey and gather intel for the big assassination mission.

Sad thing is I'm already more interested in what the Syndicate team will be making after this comes out.

Agreed, this is what I want from the new direction.

The worst part of this announcement is that there is another Watch Dogs on the way.

If they're actually taking a year off, good on them. Series fatigue is largely what kept me away from Unity and Syndicate, though the latter is supposedly a good game (surprisingly). Hitman is probably going to scratch this itch for me in 2016 anyway. I might be ready to revisit the AC series in 2017, if for no other reason than to see what they could do with dedicating a proper amount of time to an AC game. I'm kinda "meh" on the Egypt setting, though. Count me among those waiting on the Asian-set AC game that's not a fucking side-scroller.

The eagle dive wouldn't really work from the top of a pyramid. You'd get a few feet out and then bounce/roll the rest of the way down to the ground.

Actually, that sounds pretty funny. I'm back in.

These are generally all positive rumours so far as I can tell.

I hope the next AC game is different in a more-than-incremental kind of way.

At this point I'm actually curious how Ubisoft is trying to lock down from employees leaking out rumors on their next game..... I actually had Mafia 3 stuff spoiled to me, but I was too black out drunk to remember, plus I don't care for any open world game so I just blocked it out altogether. If it was a fighting game, I'd be sober as a priest on Sunday.

Inspired by the Witcher is a good thing to hear. If that means they honestly put effort into the writing and have deeper RPG elements (they have been baby stepping that way for a bit now) I will be interested. As well as starting fresh with the fiction more.

It would be great if they could make you feel like you were doing a job as an assassin the same way you felt like a monster hunter in Witcher 3. That would probably make it more like 1 like people are asking for.

For me, II is by far my favorite AC and 1 I liked but found flawed. I do like the idea more of being based around hits and think if they did that format better it could make for a cooler game.

Bi-yearly AC huh? Maby this is why they're doing the Chronicles games, to remind people the franchise isnt dead when it doesnt come out every November.

Not too fond of Egypt as a setting. It just sounds like an excuse to add a giant land mass to ride around in on your horse. If you're going to steal something from the Witcher it should be interesting characters and player choice not meaningless filler. But this is just random speculation from some leak, it's a bit too early to jump on the fuck Ubi band wagon just yet. (they make some pretty good games!)

Speaking of ninjas, is there any reason why they haven't done a mainline AC game in Japan? Or hell, how about one in China? While Japan has the entire concept/mythology of "ninjas" all to themselves, both cultures have multiple time periods in which assassination featured prominently in their histories. Drop into Warring States period China for multiple prominent figures to assign Templar/Assassin loyalties to (or the Ming Dynasty around the mid 1400s for some cool rebellions/Mongol invasions as backdrops), or anywhere from 1200s-1600s Japan (you can even carry it into the end of the Edo period and make it about the Templars trying to modernize Japan by dismantling the Tokugawa shogunate or whatever) and you'd have a bevy of locales, historical figures, and even sailing if they want to keep with that theme!

Who wouldn't want to try and sneak into the Forbidden CIty, or Himeji Castle? Or do battle/befriend with any of the numerous generals, warlords, or rulers that were present for those events? Hell, those are just the most well known periods of history in fiction for those countries; you can go as obscure as you like if you want something fresh.

It just seems like it makes too much sense to ignore.

I wish they woukd have delivered on the promise of modern day assassins creed introduced in the original trilogy. They should use thd watch dogs engine and make an actual good game with it.

I cared about the Desmond story but never thought a full game was the answer. The connection between the modern/animus and collecting the Apples was important. A modern day game seemed like it would defeat the purpose. I continue to wish that they deliver on The Garden of Eden that they showed in AC2 where the Ancient Precursor Race(TM) lived.

Though that was always a secondary wish after Ancient Egypt so I don't mind it not coming true.

Also, Watch Dogs is cool.

Well he next game seems set in the parts of the Mediterranean that they didn't hit before Egypt, Greece, etc. So maybe after that we get Asia. Its possible I suppose.

The biggest issue for me is I think the modern Templars vs Assassins story thread was terrible. It got conveluted and the whole animus thing was starting not to work in the narrative. I mean it is all a simulation so who the hell cares who dies in a simulation? If the guy or gal in the simulation never comes out to fight for real...who the fuck cares? And that seems to be the trend there is no Desmond, and nobody is training to be a real Templar or Assasin.

It seemed clever at the time... but nobody cared about the present or reality so the whole series is just wheel spinning.

I'm of the opinion that the Assassin's Creed games are generally bad games except for the first one, which was flawed but had a lot of promise. So I'd agree that something closer to what that actually was would be nice.

The big thing they need to do is ditch the whole Assassin's and Templars thing, and for gods sake ditch the hood and hidden blade. It's going to be especially stupid if that stuff is around in Ancient Egypt of all places. It's not going to happen, cause the hood is basically the series' logo at this point, and people always freak out over how "cool" it looks, but the character designs have just become increasingly dumb in every entry past the first.

I guess I really just wish we were getting games set in different time periods that weren't so beholden to the usual Assassin's Creed tropes and formula, and had greater freedom with their story and gameplay. Every Assassin's Creed game in recent history would have been greatly improved by ditching all the "Assassin's Creed" parts of it.

Also, I suppose one question that remains is how ancient this Egypt is. Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, New Kingdom? Ptolemaic Egypt even?

If they're suggesting the trilogy leads to Rome then I'm assuming by Egypt they mainly mean Alexandria (Anthony & Cleopatra etc as a starting point trilogy), rather than just riding around the desert and climbing up and down the pyramids a lot (though no doubt that will feature).

The Witcher 3 influence is likely only relating to the cities being hubs in more of an open world setting. This would probably make sense for the era, as outside of Rome itself you aren't really spoilt for choice when it comes to cities grand enough to carry a whole AC game. It's a neat enough solution, especially for Egypt, but how well this structure lends itself to AC I'm not so sure.

So they are finally dipping into those settings they originally discounted as "too boring and predictable" (and repeatedly told fans they weren't interested in making). I guess the next one is going to be the Samurai of feudal Japan then?

Egypt sounds cool. I support this.

@mirado: Ninjas are the reason there have been no Japanese Assassin's Creed games, Ubi said they weren't going to do one beacuse it's too cliche.