Published , by TJ Denzer
Published , by TJ Denzer
It would appear that Ubisoft is headed towards a major shift in development philosophies with the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Where the games have long been vast, yet contained experiences which moved between development at Ubisoft Quebec and Ubisoft Montreal, the next big step for the franchise will combine the efforts of both studios into one major project. That project has been announced currently as Assassin’s Creed Infinity and allegedly could be an evolving live service game with multiple settings.
Ubisoft officially unveiled the topic of Assassin’s Creed Infinity in a blog post on the Ubisoft website on July 7, 2021, though some alleged details started making rounds shortly before in a Bloomberg report. According to the latter, Assassin’s Creed Infinity might be a live service game which will evolve as an online experience across multiple settings with regular content additions. The Ubisoft reveal confirmed that this will indeed be a vast new project which combines the effort of Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec under Quebec’s Marc-Alexis Côté as executive producer of the project and Étienne Allonier as brand director. The possible live service aspect of the game was unconfirmed at this time in Ubisoft’s official announcement.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise has gone back and forth between Ubisoft Montreal and Quebec over the course of multiple entries in the franchise. Ubisoft Montreal handled sole developer duty on core entries up until Assassin’s Creed Rogue (handled by Ubisoft Sofia), but since Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Quebec and Montreal have gone back and forth on the last four core entries of the series. In addition to those listed above, Montreal’s Ubisoft Montreal’s Julien Laferrière will act as senior producer on the project while Quebec’s Jonathan Dumont and Montreal’s Clint Hocking will share duty as joint creative directors. Dumont was most recently creative director on AC: Odyssey while Hocking recently handled the creative director role on Watch Dogs: Legion.
Whatever Assassin’s Creed Infinity truly ends up being, it is certainly one of the most ambitious moves for the franchise yet. It will be interesting to see how these studios mesh on the latest project or if the currently alleged details about the project materialize in a more concrete form. Ubisoft has seen no lack of controversy related to sexual misconduct and workplace toxicity over the last year, culminating most recently in another address of the issues by CEO Yves Guillemot and the exit of his son from Ubisoft mobile studio Owlient. Regardless, Ubisoft promises to have more to say on Assassin’s Creed Infinity “at a later date.” Stay tuned as we await further news and details on the game.