Ubisoft's hugely successful Assassin's Creed series is coming to an end... of sorts. Why? Because the world is going to end in 2012, at least according to franchise lore. "In Assassin's Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot of December 2012," Assassin's Creed: Revelation creative lead Alexandre Amacio explained. "That's fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point."

While the upcoming Revelations plans on ending the story of Ezio and Altair, there's one more character's arc that needs to be resolved: Desmond.

"It would be stupid of us to be centering a game on a semi-reality and then have that conclusion happen after that date in real life," Amacio told Eurogamer. "Assassin's Creed is all about cycles - we have the Ezio cycle and the Altair cycle, and both of those are set to conclude in Revelations and we have the Desmond cycle, which is set to end on December 2012."

Desmond may not be a poster child for the series as his historical counterparts, but fans are eager to see how his development into a modern-day assassin will unfold. A new game set from Desmond's perspective would obviously look and feel very different from any Assassin's Creed game before it.

Of course, Ubisoft wouldn't be wise to kill, arguably, its largest franchise. Even after 2012, we can expect new stories out of the franchise. "There's many cycles within the brand - that's the whole point. History is our playground."

Assassin's Creed Revelations will be out on November 15.