Okay at this point, especially leading into 2014, calling PS4 and Xbone still next gen just sounds really unnecessary, and rather downright dumb. Regardless the question, I really hope they actually look at what people were enjoying in AC4 as a thing to go by. Making just more core AC with nothing else to it still on their same animations and systems that the game has had forever now, just isn't gonna do it for a lot of people. Stuff needs to change.

@stryker1121: All along the watchtower!

So they're basically giving it the Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty 2: Big Red One treatment.

Get used to it. People were called Xbox 360 and PS3 "next gen" into like 2010.

Well, AC is faring much better than, let's say, CoD in the annualized game space. AC-AC2 we got a huge jump in storytelling, mechanics and an entire new setting never really explored in any popular videogame ever. AC2-ACB we got what some consider the best AC in the series with the awesome assassin diciples mechanic. ACR-AC3 we got another entirely new setting never explored in any popular videogame ever, a new natural landscape and traversal and a bunch of new mechanics. AC3-AC4 we got the only game that I'm aware of where you actually feel like you're playing a pirate, great characters and totally new setting.

Iteration isn't bad and AC only stumbled in the innovations department with ACR. If they can pull off 2 great games in a year with enough new stuff in them, fuck it, I'll buy both!

For most people (including me), it only becomes current gen when most people own the damn things and they completly replaced the old stuff. So maybe we'll get there by the end of 2015?

Yep. Until "last gen" consoles become obsolete (which won't happen until probably at least late 2015 depending on sales), the PS4 and XOne are still next gen consoles. It's just a descriptive term to distinguish what you're talking about. There's nothing dumb about using language to communicate effectively.

All I want is another game focusing on Altair. I've been waiting for years and Ubisoft still hasn't done it. Otherwise I'm not interested. I liked Altair as a character and I'm disappointed that there still hasn't been a sequel focusing on him. Also Ubisoft should not release another AC game on last gen. That's just silly to keep making games for the older consoles as well as the newer ones. And can we please stop saying Next Gen? Next gen doesn't exist yet and the PS3/360 is last gen not current gen. Current Gen is the PS4, Xbox One, and the Wii U.

Revamp the combat.

Given Watch_Dogs will inevitably be an AC-style game too, Ubi may be overdoing it.

I would argue, though that AC 1 just never should have come out. It's the accepted norm, now, for people to assume that a game can come out and be awful and be "a good start". Back in the day, that would have just been "a bad game". AC 2 coming out and being the game AC 1 should have been isn't a boon for "iteration", it's just a concession that people allow game developers to beta test their games on paying customers.

At this point I would much rather they came up with a new framing device and narrative justification for these new potential environments and packaged them as new series instead of yet more Assassin's Creed games. They're all totally solid and all, but by now even the games aren't bothering with pretending there's a reason those games continue to exist anymore.

Black Flag was the first Assassin's Creed game I ever bought and I can't imagine wanting another one for at LEAST 2 years. Probably closer to 3 or 4.

What developers don't realize, is how much they are shooting themselves in the foot with these annual game franchises. Maybe I'm only speaking for the concept of excitement, and not from the perspective of sales numbers, but the reason gamers don't get as excited about games as they used to, in my opinion, is because they come out too frequently. Zelda 2/3/64/Windwaker were megaton games because technology had lept and bounded between games. You could do all sorts of theings you couldn't do before. When you make a new game every year, and the only difference is a few more polygons each time, it dulls the excitement because nobody really notices how far things have come.

It's really easy to look at AC one now and say ''that game was shit MEH'' but it was amazing and mindblowing when it came out. They needed the first game to test out (as in see if people were into it enough to justify the high dev costs) an insane amount of never seen before game mechanics and they did just that. The sci fi twist was also great if you're not one of those people who needs to ruin the suprise for themselve by overanalysing everything.

Aside from that I'm not even sure what your point is. Ubisoft should stop making AC games? The game industry should never make sequels again? Maybe a more realistic solution for you would be to not play AC games or sequels and let people who enjoy them have their fun.

I had a great time with AC1, AC2, ACB, AC3 and AC4. Some were certainly better than others but I'm not sure what we would've got if Ubisoft stopped making those games after the second one.

First, saying assassin's creed only adds polygons every year is just disigenuous.

Second, my theory about the people that don't get exited about video games anymore is much simpler: they're jadded as fuck. Maybe the yearly AC release isn't mindblowingly exiting but we've got a bunch of other games to fill your hype needs. If the witcher 3, persona 5, dying light, no man's sky, titanfall, destiny, watchdogs, etc. aren't enough for you to be exited about video games maybe you should find a new hobbie.

Good news in my book. Even if it results in a smaller scale experience at first, I think it's the right thing to do. To be honest, Assassin's Creed often feels like Ubisoft throws in the everything and kitchen sink, and much of it isn't worthwhile anyways - just collectibles for collectibles sake. Really figure out a new way of doing Assassin's Creed to better use the power of the new generation, and maybe a more meaningful direction overall, and less meaningless filler distractions and busywork. Sounds like the right thing to do. And this time, can we maybe get good combat that feels less like loosely strung together QTEs and more like me actually being in control?

I'm saying 15 years ago, something like "Final Fantasy 15" or "super Mario brothers 12" was a literal joke because the idea of anything having 14 sequels was insane. You would see it in the Simpsons and stuff. Who in the world would want that many sequels of Anything? And ask yourself now, do YOU, really?

@kiddynamo04: Saying Final Fantasy is bad, as a series, because it now has a 15 on the end is a baseless argument. Seriously, who cares about what the title is? Aside from a few direct sequels, every numbered final fantasy game is a completly different game than the ones that came before. From that point of view it's kinda cool they did build a series relying only on general themes and minor shared elements between games. Go watch the FF15 trailer and tell me it doesn't look excting and novel. The brand recognition is THE ONLY REASON they can justify making such a crazy looking game.

Sequels are only a bad thing if they fail to innovate enough. Again, you might have been rightfuly concerned years ago when the rising dev costs blocked out the desire from big publishers to build new IPs. But now with a zillion indy devs actively discusted by the perspective of making a sequel I can't see why you're worried at all.

I ironically, my brothers and I were just watching the FFXV trailer two nights ago and the general consensus was that it was completely impossible to tell what was going on and what the players involvement in the action was supposed to be. Or even COULD be.

Last gen and current gen. That's the correct wording.