Ubisoft Won't Ship Yearly Assassin's Creed If "It's Not Good Enough"

[Alex Co]

Ubisoft Won't Ship Yearly Assassin's Creed If "It's Not Good Enough"

Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc is open to the idea of delaying an Assassin's Creed game if it's not up to their standards.

By now, it's no secret that Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise is an annualized series; but don't think that the publisher will force a title out just to meet its deadline. Speaking to IGN [http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/12/19/ubisoft-would-delay-an-assassins-creed-if-its-not-good-enough], Ubisoft North America president Laurent Detoc claims that they're open to delay a yearly entry into the series if "it's not good enough" or if they end up with a "70% Assassin's Creed" game.

"If we think we've ended up with a 70 percent Assassin's Creed game, we're not going to ship it," claims Detoc. "That damages the brand. I'm not going to give you the names of products, because you know them as well as I do, but if you start to make games at 70 percent, even with a big brand, eventually people are going to change their mind about that brand. They won't want it anymore. That's what saves the recurrence."

Since 2009, Ubisoft's stealth-action game has seen a yearly release and that hasn't been deterred, even with the publisher releasing the latest AC game, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, on next-gen consoles.

Do you think Ubisoft should put the Assassin's Creed franchise on hiatus before they dilute the brand or should they keep to their yearly schedule provided the quality is there?

Source: IGN [http://uk.ign.com/articles/2013/12/19/ubisoft-would-delay-an-assassins-creed-if-its-not-good-enough]

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[wooty]

Hmmmm, difficult to answer really. I can partially agree with this statement for Brotherhood and fully agree with the statement for Revelations. Both were slight steps down from AC2, even if they introduce some nice scenes and elements to the series.

I'd say releasing one every 18 months - 2 years would probably do the trick. But whatever they did with Black Flag.....it hit the nail right on the head.

 

[Grabehn]

Shoudln't they have don this about 3 years ago though? I mean, if Brotherhood/Revelations were up to their standars... I don't have any idea of what ISN'T up there.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Yes Ubisoft, please give the franchise a rest for 2/3-odd years.

God knows you guys make fucking great games when you don't skimp on time, like Assassin's Creed II.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Shoudln't they have don this about 3 years ago though? I mean, if Brotherhood/Revelations were up to their standars... I don't have any idea of what ISN'T up there.

III isn't.

It shouldn't be up to their standards anyway, it's a bloody tech demo, and if you thought Revelations was bad, III is worse.

 

[FFP2]

Revelations and III were "good enough" ?

I really hope they take a break from the franchise. Even if it's just for a year. Maybe we'll end up with an AC game as good as II that way...

 

[BrotherRool]

I believe Ubisoft when they say they'll delay for quality. We've seen this with games like Watchdogs and Stick of Truth. It's a refreshing and sensible attitude for a publisher and I hope it pays off for them (an Obsidian game where the publishers actually chose to delay the project to get it more polished instead of forcing it out?!)

But despite that, I think they're still overusing the Assassins Creed brand and yearly releases will drive it into the ground, when theoretically it should be able to last for a really long time. They need a way to break it up more, the series is already famous for being too monotonous

 

[mattttherman3]

Honestly, Blag Flag would have been SOOO much better as assassins creed 3. Just switch out the observatory for whatever the thing was in 3 and boom.

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

If they end up with a 70% Assassin's Creed game, they won't ship it.

But if they end up with a 30% Assassin's Creed game, like Revelations, that's fine.

 

[AndrewC]

Too bad they made Ass Creed 3 and forever demolished the hopes of ever giving us a good AC game forevermore.

Sounds a bit like the Sonic franchise: ruined by a series of games they're just firing out the window claiming that each one will be totally awesome and fans will love it.

No! Don't do that! Give us something that's the same quality as AC2! They bothered to make that game excellent, take that craftmanship and fire it into a new game if you insist on pumping games out of this franchise till it's dry.

To be fair, the sailing mechanics in AC3 were fairly fun: rest of the game was an abomination. Same applies to Black Flag.

Personally.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Sounds a bit like the Sonic franchise: ruined by a series of games they're just firing out the window claiming that each one will be totally awesome and fans will love it.
.

That was the case for Sonic for some time. However, Sonic Generations was a great game, so I have hope for the future for Sonic.

 

[TiberiusEsuriens]

Revelations and III were "good enough" ?

I really hope they take a break from the franchise. Even if it's just for a year. Maybe we'll end up with an AC game as good as II that way...

While fans might not think Revelations was as good as 2, it certainly sold well enough and still had pretty positive reviews. 3 was a lot more meh, but still decent in a different way, just not as "Assassin's-Creedy" as we wanted.

I agree though, part of the reason the franchise has started to feel a little meh is just that they release so often the good just blend in together with the less-good [bad]. A small break in between would help differentiate them in our minds, and also give the devs time to actually come up with distinguishing factors instead of "This is like the last one, but with a hook!" IMO I liked the hook, but sometimes to get a better picture of where your project is headed you just need to step back and look at it from a distance.

 

[Buizel91]

People forget that yes, there is a year release, but the game might have been in production for 2 years, Black flag was being developed when Revelations came out, AC3 was being developed when Brotherhood came out (not saying much considering it's the worst in the series but hey ho) So its' not as if it's "Yey AC3 is released, now lets get started on Black Flag!"

Each game has about 2 years to be created, so I'm not worried about a yearly release. Hell, We have 2 next year don't we? Liberation early in 2014 (was for PS VITA and is no coming to consoles) and another one at the end of the year.

 

[AndrewC]

Sounds a bit like the Sonic franchise: ruined by a series of games they're just firing out the window claiming that each one will be totally awesome and fans will love it.
.

That was the case for Sonic for some time. However, Sonic Generations was a great game, so I have hope for the future for Sonic.

...really?

Game had dreadful voice acting and script writing, a horrendous storyline and mediocre mechanics.

Sure some levels looked pretty and the music was alright, but what makes you like that game?

If I was to push out a game celebrating years worth of one of gamings best loved characters then I'd sure as hell be making a good game. Not pumping out some crap that can be finished in about 2-3 hours.

I know it's slightly off-topic, but I am genuinely curious.

 

[serious biscuit]

I would be rejoicing in this news, so as we don't get another Creed 3 but then they will just release the what will become annual watch dogs instead...

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This is just an empty claim. Of course they're gonna say that. What's the alternative? Saying that they will release AC every year despite the quality? They're the ones get to decide if the game is up to their standards. It's their standard.

 

[idarkphoenixi]

Yeah this is pretty fucking hollow, especially coming out the mouth of Ubisoft.

Not up to standards...Yet we all know what they mean is "We'll keep churning them out until it actually stops turning a profit, regardless of quality"

 

[Grabehn]

Shoudln't they have don this about 3 years ago though? I mean, if Brotherhood/Revelations were up to their standars... I don't have any idea of what ISN'T up there.

III isn't.

It shouldn't be up to their standards anyway, it's a bloody tech demo, and if you thought Revelations was bad, III is worse.

Since they seemed to just lower and lower the quality right after 2, and I even had issues with the latter, since what I got from AC 1 was that Désilets didn't want any cutscenes on his game, and I'd guess that it was Ubi that decided to throw that out on the 2nd game, the less involvement he had on the games, the worse they became. So it didn't surprise me at all that AC 3 was just shit.

 

[oldtaku]

That certainly didn't stop them with AC3.

AC4 is back up to snuff, but yeah, give it a rest and just give us a pirate game.

 

[bug_of_war]

Too bad they made Ass Creed 3 and forever demolished the hopes of ever giving us a good AC game forevermore.

Sounds a bit like the Sonic franchise: ruined by a series of games they're just firing out the window claiming that each one will be totally awesome and fans will love it.

No! Don't do that! Give us something that's the same quality as AC2! They bothered to make that game excellent, take that craftmanship and fire it into a new game if you insist on pumping games out of this franchise till it's dry.

To be fair, the sailing mechanics in AC3 were fairly fun: rest of the game was an abomination. Same applies to Black Flag.

Personally.

Have you played AC4? Cause Black Flag was (at least for me) on par with the first and second AC game. I would seriously recommend borrowing or buy a copy as it's definitely worth your time.

OT: Well seeing as how they've delayed both Watchdogs and South Park I'd say they're not lying.