Gamers have heard many details concerning Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag as of late, but multiplayer was exempt from the big news conference yesterday. Now, some information is beginning to trickle down about the game's multiplayer. Furthermore, the game has already gained some controversy for including whaling.
In a Q and A session with AllGamesBeta, multiplayer is listed as such: "Multiplayer Experience - Fight against or cooperate with your friends in the ruthless and acclaimed multiplayer experience. Choose from an eclectic cast of characters and fight to the death in exotic themed maps."
While this does not reveal very much, lead content manager Carsten Myhill has told CVG a little bit more of when we can expect more multiplayer news, as well as dropping a bombshell about naval multiplayer:
"We're going to be communicating big on multiplayer in the coming weeks," Myhill said. "However, what I can say is that unfortunately we won't be doing naval multiplayer for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag."
On a different note, Black Flag's Whaling feature, while not the focal point of the game, has drawn the ire of animal rights group PETA.
"This bloody industry still goes on today in the face of international condemnation, and it's disgraceful for any game to glorify it," the organization told VentureBeat. "PETA encourages video game companies to create games that celebrate animals-not games that promote hurting and killing them."
It will be interesting to see if Ubisoft keeps whaling in the final version of the game, or they bow to the pressure from PETA and remove it from the game. Whaling, while popular in the time of the game's setting, continues in a limited fashion today in select countries today. We will continue to monitor both the whaling controversy and multiplayer news as it develops.