Report details pitches for smaller Assassin's Creed games
Aztec game considered, as well as VR, multiplayer projects.
Early details of several potential Assassin's Creed projects have been leaked online, which are said to be in the "conceptual and prototype" phases within Ubisoft.
These include a project from Assassin's Creed Rogue studio Ubisoft Sofia with story elements set in multiple time periods, including the highly-requested Aztec Empire, as well as India and the Mediterranean.
The other projects discussed by Insider Gaming sound like smaller spin-offs, such as a free-to-play four-player PVE co-op game from Ubisoft Chengdu, a multiplayer project which uses Ubisoft's nebulous cloud computing tech from Ubisoft Annecy and Massive Entertainment, and a second Assassin's Creed VR project.
Word of the projects comes as Ubisoft seeks to right itself following a period of poor financial results, and ongoing internal issues which led to a handful of disgruntled staff going on strike.
In the wake of games such as Just Dance 2023 and Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope underperforming and a wave of project cancellations, it's been suggested Ubisoft will look to its other evergreen brands for stability: Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Tom Clancy.
Today's report makes it clear we probably won't see any of these Assassin's Creed projects for several years, even if all of them continue in development and become full releases.
"We do not comment on rumours and speculation," a Ubisoft spokesperson told Eurogamer in response to the report this morning.
But details of these games hardly comes as a surprise. Indeed, these are the kinds of projects Assassin's Creed boss Marc-Alexis Coté discussed with me in Paris last year, when Ubisoft laid out the future of its biggest franchise.
Coté even mentioned Ubisoft Sofia's future work on the franchise to me at the time - something which now seems to gel well with today's report about its potential next project.
"I want our other studios that have contributed wonderful ideas to the franchise - like, I keep using Ubisoft Sofia as an example," Coté told me last year. "[Sofia] built Assassin's Creed Rogue, something incredible with [Valhalla expansion] Dawn of of Ragnarok, and many other gems like their DLC for Origins Curse of the Pharaoh which was was brilliant as well.
"So, can a studio like Sofia impress our community with a project that's not necessarily a 150-hour long product? Because when we build 150 hour long product, there's so much that rests on it commercially, that the stakes become so high. Having Infinity will allow for more diversity in both the periods that we choose to feature and the gameplay that those games have."
Ubisoft is currently prepping its Assassin's Creed Infinity project to be a new hub for future Assassin's Creed games of all shapes and sizes.
These games will include Assassin's Creed Codename Red, a major new action adventure RPG set in Japan from the talented Assassin's Creed Odyssey team at Ubisoft Quebec, and the spooky-looking Assassin's Creed Hexe from Ubisot Montreal, which looks to focus on the witch trials of the Holy Roman Empire.
Today's report suggests Red is pencilled in for a 2024 release, while Hexe will follow down the line in 2026.
Ubisoft is also prepping a standalone return for Assassin's Creed's old multiplayer mode. That's reportedly set to debut in 2025.
Ubisoft's last major Assassin's Creed release was 2020 blockbuster Valhalla, which became one of Ubisoft's biggest hits in recent years. 2023 will bring the launch of the smaller, stealth-focused Assassin's Creed Mirage, set in Baghdad.