In an interview with Game Informer, Ubisoft CCO Serge Hascoet shared several details about the Assassin’s Creed franchise, including the direction of its evolution, how a setting/idea is pitched, the analyzation of the franchise and the potential of the return of multiplayer:
Evolutionary Direction of the Series:
When asked regarding the drastic departure of Origins and Odyssey from the franchise’s style, Serge replied that he does find that Odyssey to be “lacking some flavor of an assassin, so we are working on that”, adding that “the rpg mechanics are really improved, but we need the leap of faith, the sounds, all the good stuff of the previous games”.
Hascoet thinks it was a good decision to move away from the old fighting system.
Pitching a Game
Development teams are usually the ones who pitch an idea for a game, which must get past the studio’s boss first, then onto the rest of the editorial team, including the CCO, Serge Hascoet himself.
Annualization of the Franchise
Serge confirmed that there are no plans to make Assassin’s Creed an annual franchise again; “It depends. What we did was we built two teams, one in Montreal, and one in Quebec, and we wanted to give them enough time”. He also added that it’s “Not a question of annualization, a question of quality”.
Choosing the Protagonist and the Setting
Serge denied that the popularity of Ezio due to having three consecutive games will have any impact on their direction with new Assassins. He also added that “The most interesting thing about Assassin’s Creed for us is to explore history, not characters.” Choosing the time period and setting leads everything else. “When you saw old Ezio in Revelations, it was very powerful, but the context and time are the most important priorities”.
Serge stated that there’s a plan for Bayek and Aya’s future which may potentially be implemented. “There is a plan,….Maybe something else will push forward, be it a TV show or a movie”.
Moving Away from Cutscenes
Hascoet has been asking teams to move away from relying on cutscenes. “If you want to be a spectator, the game shouldn’t decide for you, it should still be a player decision”. He doesn’t want to force cinematics on a player if the player doesn’t want them adding that “They are not good when they are forced”.
VR
Ubisoft’s been experimenting with VR for Assassin’s Creed, but progress has been very slow, according to Hascoet.
Multiplayer
When asked about what evolving their technology for the future, he stated that they’re looking at the possibility of considering adding a multiplayer mode: “Assassin’s Creed has no mulitplayer mode, and that is a very important for the social aspect of gaming, so we are looking at that.”
The complete interview is available on Game Informer. Special thanks to Turul/Dylan from the Assassin’s Creed subreddit and Mentor’s Guild for sharing and compiling the interview.
