Ubisoft Says to Expect More Annual Sequels

[piinyouri]

"The Assassin's Creed developer believes that annual sequels can continue as long as the games are decent."

I think is a better way to put it.

For AAA games, they are honestly pretty good. Compared to anything else though, they are decent crazy romps through so many fictionalized events that I probably wouldn't pay more than 25-30 bucks for.

 

[dragongit]

Unfortunately because the sales are so solid they can continue to do this. Sell a game for 60 bucks across all available consoles, put in half the effort so they can squeeze out another sequel every year, rake in the profit. Now maybe it does cost a lot still to make a new game every year but they clearly are able to do it. This is just my issue with games like CoD, they keep punching them out so often that not only does it feel like we spent the full amount for a new game that is basically the same as the last, but the excitement of getting a new one dies down and you just feel obligated if you are a fan of the franchise.

I kinda held off getting into the franchise before, but now I'm reluctant to get in. If I want the full experience it may not cost a super ton if i start now, but it would suck a ton of hours that could have been spent on other things. I may have to just simply not invest in the franchise then.

 

[GAunderrated]

"Yay for a business decision no one wants."

"Just what I wanted, said no one ever."

"We don't need annual releases, and no one asked for it."

Sales figures dictate that you are all very, very wrong.

AC 1- 10.56 million sold, lifetime
AC 2- 10.76 million sold, lifetime
AC Brotherhood- 9.35 million sold, lifetime
AC Revelations- 8.2 million sold, lifetime
AC 3- 9.61 million sold, lifetime

Those are incredibly strong numbers, and they don't even take into account Steam purchases, PSN and Games on Demand sales. My guess is the series is holding pat at around 10 million a year. Those are better numbers than Madden has pushed out yearly. Also consider that they aren't creating a new engine for each release, and the costs to produce each yearly installment drops, while the profit margin increases.

No one is arguing that it isn't getting them returns for now but rather that they know if Ubisoft continues this trend it will start to plummet as history has proven with many games.

I'd also like to point out that there are many now jilted fans of the series that was expecting a conclusion at the end of AC3 not a cop-out. I am interested to see how long Ubisoft can keep it up. It is not a question of IF but rather WHEN the game will have taken its toll from yearly releases.

 

[Goofguy]

Right well the operative phrase is "as long as the games are good" and even then, it can be a stretch. There is such thing as saturating the market with your product and it certainly doesn't help if said product is shite (*ahem* AC3).

 

[Trishbot]

Can anyone even tell me what Assassins' Creed's core feature even IS anymore? Like, what is the one thing it does best? What's its identity?

It's like Resident Evil after RE5... the gameplay, the themes, the identity it once had are just gone, and it instead just cribs from its predecessors and other games and has nothing truly unique anymore that makes it worthwhile.

I think a lot of people went into AC3 expecting something big, like the jump from AC1 to AC2... and I think sales of the next game will be vastly inferior after AC3 was... decent... at best. I could be wrong, though. Maybe it'll be like Madden and everyone will just buy it anyway because.... because it's Assassin's Creed and the roster changed up a bit.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

If the games were ORIGINAL AND DIFFERENT then maybe I'd have bought them after Brotherhood. Since then I've given up on the series. I think that the whole Real-World/Magical Machine That Puts You In The Past, is a dead angle. It would be better at this point to simply make a game or series that takes place in various time periods and doesn't jump back and fourth for stupid reasons. OR! They could make you feel like a REAL Assassin and not some un-killable GOD who can rush into a crowd and hack his way through a army of armed guards with 1-hit kills. I'd rather take the time to land that ONE single/perfectly executed kill, rather then just running headfirst into the room like a common thug instead of a Assassin.

 

[sid]

"Yay for a business decision no one wants."

"Just what I wanted, said no one ever."

"We don't need annual releases, and no one asked for it."

Sales figures dictate that you are all very, very wrong.

AC 1- 10.56 million sold, lifetime
AC 2- 10.76 million sold, lifetime
AC Brotherhood- 9.35 million sold, lifetime
AC Revelations- 8.2 million sold, lifetime
AC 3- 9.61 million sold, lifetime

Those are incredibly strong numbers, and they don't even take into account Steam purchases, PSN and Games on Demand sales. My guess is the series is holding pat at around 10 million a year. Those are better numbers than Madden has pushed out yearly. Also consider that they aren't creating a new engine for each release, and the costs to produce each yearly installment drops, while the profit margin increases.

The numbers game, when talking about the gaming industry, is not that straight forward. You need to realize that while sales have been quite strong for the series, what you can see from those sales charts is a game becoming unexpectedly popular (1), creating a unique sequel with the same core spirit (2), and then releasing it two times over (B/R) which caused fans to lose some interest. When the game was finally resumed with a nice amount of changes (3), a pretty large chunk of what could've been a loyal fanbase wasn't there anymore, couple that with the fact that the game itself was not particularly good and you can assume Assassins Creed 4 is going to sell less than Brotherhood, and I don't want to throw my eggs in a basket but it will probably tank under Revelations as well. Because, with Assassins Creed being established as a yearly occurrence, the series ultimately loses its charm until it can no longer sell a good 5-6 million copies, at which point Ubisoft benches the series and gets a new star. But what will stay with them from the Assassins Creed experience won't be a large check, stagnant money goes away really quick for companies and what keeps them alive is a steady income after all. What will remain with Ubisoft is a significant loss of fans and respect towards whatever they produce next, and that's what kills a company looking for short-term money. EA has made some shameless farming in the past and now the only thing they have left is contempt from its consumers and a crumbling infrastructure, Ubisoft's decisions make it quite susceptible to the same.

In other news, the captcha specifically says "work out", what the hell is that supposed to mean :C

 

[Grabehn]

When they started the damn yearly releases the games went to shit, AC Revelations was so poorly implemented on PC, seems like the grey colour made it just worse. After the shit that was for me Brotherhood I stopped caring about the games thou, And it was even worse after knowing that they dropped Mayan/Aztech and French Rev ideas in order to make a shitty Ezio trilogy.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Yay... More AssCreed.

The sad thing is that I love the first game. Back then I had no idea how the series would turn out. Still, Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood are very good despite the annoying protagonist. I haven't touched Revelations and I quit Assassin's Creed III before I even got to play as Connor. From what little I've seen, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag: It's Assassin's Creed VI, Actually seems to be even worse.

Oh well, if people in general keep buying them, good for them.

 

[Zydrate]

I can't afford to get them fast enough T_T

I swear I'm collecting this series like baseball cards.

 

[synobal]

I think they will see their sales drop like they were throw off a cliff is they attempt to do annual sequels to their Assassin's Creed IP. I stopped after number 2, and haven't touched the series since. It didn't improve upon the actual assassination aspects of the game like I had hoped. EA said crazy sales devalued IPs but the truth is annual and frequent (in gaming standards) sequels and expansions of IPs are what devalue them.

 

[Samus Aaron]

And if the games are crap? Does nobody learn from the Guitar Hero debacle, even now?

Nah, the reason Guitar Hero failed to sell was because they could only sell so many $80 plastic instruments. Pure video games, however, have much more longevity. Hell, just look at sports games. Hence my skepticism that COD and AssCreed will lose significant sales. Perhaps a drop in review scores may hurt sales, but I doubt anything higher than an 80 on Metacritic would do so, maybe even 75.

 

[Reaper195]

Haven't bought an Assassin's Creed game since Brotherhood and won't until the series is done. I was under the impression that we were getting a trilogy of games. Apparently not.

Right? remember when 3 didn't actually mean 5?


Still, I do somewhat agree that yearly releases are fine as long as the games are good. But 3 needed improvement in a lot of areas, and better writing (Since 3 was fucking abysmal. It took four games to finally do something with Desmond, and when they finally did...he was killed off. Bullshit. And Connor's story was less about being an assassin, and more a retelling of american revolution events with some templar/assassin bollocks thrown in for...whatever reason. Remember when the game was about actually assassinating people, not witnessing historical events and fighting in large battles?)

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Wait, are Ubisoft co-owned by EA and Activision or did they just decide to try and run their franchise in to the ground all on their own? I can see it now: Altair's Pro Stabbing. Ezio Hero: Legends of Stab. Assassins Creed 2014: Modern Sea Battle-fare.

The AC series has slowly droped the whole assassin theme of suddenly killing your targets. Its if someone at Ubi said 'Didn't you hear? according to market research stabbing people is on the way out!'

So the the first two titles wouldn't be made.

But the forth one is a given.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Canadamus_prime says to expect him not to buy them

 

[DarkhoIlow]

Hey, as long as they keep selling 8 million copies with each Assasssin's Creed title released I don't think they really care what their "fans" think about the annualization.

With that said, AC3 was terrible (naval battles exceptions) and since I'm glad all the bullshit with Desmond is finally over, I'll be getting AC4 because their themes intrigue me (PIRATES FTW!).

 

[shrekfan246]

Spoiler: Joke, inspired by what Andy Shandy did a few days ago.

Canadamus_prime says to expect him not to buy them

Canadamus_prime says to expect him not to buy more Assassin's Creed. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.404928-Ubisoft-Says-to-Expect-More-Annual-Sequels?page=2#16794748]

The Escapist forum-goer believes that Ubisoft should expect lower sales by a count of at least one.

Sequels have been big business this generation. This has, in part, been a result of the times. Development costs are higher than ever and sequels are a far safer bet than investing in new properties. That said, as some franchises have begun falling into annual release cycles, there are those who have expressed their doubts as to whether that sort of business model <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/122592-Take-Two-Says-Frequent-GTA-Releases-Would-Degrade-Franchise>can continue much longer. One such naysayer is canadamus_prime, whom we can only assume is a Canadian Transformer.

"Don't expect me to buy them", prime said in reference to a news article about a quote from the head of Ubisoft Montreal, Yannis Mallat. The Assassin's Creed franchise has grown significantly more popular and profitable since the first game launched in 2007, thanks in no small part to a consistent string of sequels, but it seems this user isn't content with such an annual string of 'new' games.

Shortly after the release of Assassin's Creed III, Ubisoft announced Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, slated for a 2013 launch. It was also revealed recently that another Assassin's Creed game <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-28-jade-raymonds-ubisoft-toronto-collaborating-on-new-unannounced-assassins-creed-game>could already in the works for 2014. We are currently unsure of canadamus' stance on these announcements, but feel it would be closely in line with his previous statement on the subject.

Source: The Escapist Forums [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.404928-Ubisoft-Says-to-Expect-More-Annual-Sequels?page=2#16794748]

Permalink

OT: I'm not surprised, considering they've been doing annual sequels and spin-offs since it debuted back in 2007. Contrary to most of the people around here, though, I did quite enjoy ACIII, especially after Brotherhood and Revelations both just bored me.

Doubt I'll buy any on launch still, since the franchise sits squarely in my "Kinda fun, but not something I care about" section of new games.

Also, I'm disappointed Captcha doesn't accept "Ghostbusters" as an answer to "Who you gonna call?"

 

[C117]

The Assassin's Creed developer believes that annual sequels can continue as long as the games are good.

Oh really. It's just too bad then that the Assassin's Creed series has, in my opinion, continually gotten worse since number 1.

I mean, could you at least spend TWO years on developing the next sequel? We can wait.

 

[Scorpid]

Untill they go to a setting that is actually interesting count me out. Renaissance Italy, wow awesome! Crusades?! =O stunning! ... Colonial america... Age of Pirates... Both politically speaking are pretty irrelivant and are just symptoms from larger forces at play. If they go to the old west next (which I wouldn't at all be surprised) then I'll know for sure they don't know what made the series great at the start.

 

[Johnson McGee]

I've already got a shelf and steam library full of queued games, theres only so much not Beyond Good & Evil 2 that I have the stomach for.