By now, it goes without saying that Assassin’s Creed is Ubisoft’s most lucrative franchise. In 2016, Ubisoft announced that the series had sold over 100 million copies. Assassin’s Creed’s main installments has been going on yearly (with the exception of 2008 and 2016) since 2007. Most of the main installments have been very well received, with Assassin’s Creed II and Brotherhood cracking the score of 90 on Metacritic. Naturally, the next game in the franchise, Odyssey, was discussed at this year’s gamescom. In an interview with GameSpot, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated that Odyssey would not be followed by another game next year. Guillemot talked about how the development teams were working on both Origins (which released last year) and Odyssey during the same time period.
Guillemot: “It’s just because the team were working separately, so we have two games now, one year after the other. But next year you’re not going to have a fully fledged one.”
Based on that wording, you might infer that while next year will not see a main installment, a spin-off is likely. Assassin’s Creed is no stranger to spin-off titles, such as Altaïr’s Chronicles and Bloodlines. But, Guillemot shot this down in the GameSpot interview, saying that there will not be any spin-offs either. Instead, it sounds like Odyssey will be getting continued support.
Guillemot: “What you’ll have is lots of content coming on [Assassin’s Creed Odyssey]. The team really want to give, on a regular basis, some new possibilities for play, so when you get [Odyssey] this year, you’re going to get in for a couple of years, actually.”
Thus, 2019 will lack a new title for Assassin’s Creed. Although disappointing, Odyssey should prove to be a fantastic entry. With continued support, the game could last awhile. Odyssey is sounding like a very ambitious, immense title. Gamereactor caught up with Odyssey director Scott Philips at gamescom, and discussed the game’s more RPG focus. Philips stated that a big priority for the development team was to make Odyssey “into full-on RPG.” Assassin’s Creed has typically been known as an action-adventure with stealth, but it looks like Odyssey will fully embrace RPG elements.
Ubisoft released a new cinematic trailer at gamescom, highlighting Kassandra and the story. Big battles are featured, as well as Medusa. Kassandra is especially notable because this will mark the first time in a main Assassin’s Creed game that the player can choose to play as a female character for the story. All in all, Odyssey looks like a promising installment. Time will tell if it ends up being the strongest game in the series.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey will be released on October 5th for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
