Assassin's Creed 4 News: Ubisoft Talks End of Series, New Gameplay Video Released

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is the latest entry into the franchise, and figures to be one of the benchmark launch titles for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The game is due in the fall for various consoles, and some fans have begun to wonder where the series will go now that Assassin's Creed 3 tied up some storylines of the series when it was released. Assassin's Creed 4 game director Ashraf Ismail spoke to Eurogamer about the series, and revealed that Ubisoft has an ending for the series planned, despite plans to release new entries into the series every year:

"We have an idea of where the end is, what the end is...But of course [Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot] announced we are a yearly title, we ship one game a year. So depending on the setting, depending on what fans want, we've given ourselves room to fit more in this arc. But there is an end."

While an end for the series has been developed, Ubisoft has no plans to stop production of the series in the near future. Ismail revealed that each branch of Ubisoft that is working on Assassin's Creed games knows their role in the arc of the series and are able to plan around it:

"We have multiple development teams, then we have the brand team that sits on top and is filled with writers and designers concerned with the series' overall arc...So there is an overall arc, and each iteration has its place inside this."

Additionally, having a plan for the plot of the entire series allows for Ubisoft to drop hints and plants the seeds as to where the series will go next, as the developers and writers already know what is to come for the series. Ismail gave the example of the main link between Assassin's Creed 3 and 4 as one of the ways this has been benefial for the franchise:

"We're now able to seed stuff earlier and earlier in our games...So for example in [AC4] we have Edward, who was seeded in AC3. But there's a lot more stuff in our game that is hinting at other possibilities."

In addition, Ubisoft has released a new gameplay video and interview about the naval fort battles that will be part of the game. Taking out forts is critically to exploring new parts of the world, and will require the players to seriously beef up their ships if they want to defeat them. The video can be seen here.