Ubisoft wants Assassin’s Creed to be like Mario

When asked about Ubisoft’s plan to turn the Assassin’s Creed franchise into an annual affair, Ubisoft Montreal’s creative director Alex Hutchinson promoted the criticised strategy of the publisher.

“Since when is something less amazing if you get a new one every year?” he said.

“If Breaking Bad was shown twice a week I’d watch it twice a week. If Radiohead put out an album every six months I’d gladly buy one every six months.”

Hutchinson explained that the demand for big games puts pressure on publisher’s to deliver, and that’s financially taxing.

“If people want these massive triple-A blockbusters, people will have to accept that we have to make our money back somehow,” he said.

“It’s rare that you’ll make your money back on the first one. Assassin’s Creed 3 is a huge undertaking – we went back to basics on a number of things, including tech.”

Assassin’s Creed III

Hutchinson was then asked about some of the unfavourable responses regarding Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, to which he replied: “We were reading reviews about Assassin’s Creed Revelations and a few people were asking whether this was the end of the franchise, and we were thinking ‘er, slow down’. I mean, I’m no huge fan of Metacritic, but the game got an eighty on there. That’s not too bad really.”

He added: “The way we see Assassin’s Creed 3 now is as a franchise, like Mario or Resident Evil, that will have its ups and downs. It wasn’t the original plan to be an ongoing series, no, but it became the plan. The curse of success, for want of better phrase.”

“But if you can keep a series interesting and fresh, then I don’t see why it shouldn’t go on. Nintendo has been great at reinvigorating their franchises, as have other Japanese companies, so we feel we can too.”

Ubisoft’s next instalment, Asssassin’s Creed III, is scheduled for a 23 November release.