Assassin's Creed Is Making Its Own Version Of GTA: Online
While franchises like Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty are guaranteed to come out like clockwork, many are asking why they haven't reached the pinnacle of Rockstar Games' various online multiplayer and its success with Grand Theft Auto. Away from keeping us on tenterhooks about when GTA 6 will be released, Rockstar devotes a lot of its time to the massive task of running GTA: Online and Red Dead Online.
With other publishers keen to get in on the action, Ubisoft has just announced its own live services platform, which will bring the sprawling world(s) of Assassin's Creed to a whole new demographic.
Well, as long as we don't have another The Sims Online on our hands.
How is Assassin's Creed creating its own GTA: Online?
Hot off the press, Ubisoft has just announced Assassin's Creed Infinity. Bloomberg has the insider track and confirmed, "Infinity will contain multiple settings with room to expand to others in the months and years following its debut". Instead of GTA Online being locked into its modern setting, Infinity has the scope to explore all the various time periods Assassin's Creed has since 2007.
While Assassin's Creed originally started out with a relatively simple premise where you inhabited the body of an ancient assassin in the Third Crusade, we'd later go on to explore everything from the god-fearing days of Ancient Egypt to the swashbuckling Golden Age of Piracy, the heights of Greek mythology to axe-swinging Vikings.
With each AC game largely offering up a brand-new era to explore, there have been critiques Assassin's Creed hasn't been able to explore these time periods to their full potential - look at how many God of War games stuck with Ancient Greece. Infinity sounds like it will give players a chance to slow down and bask in these eras for a much more in-depth experience.
Bloomberg gives the nod to Take-Two Interactive's success with GTA Online and how the company's shares have jumped by a whopping 42% since the start of 2020. Ubisoft's shares failed to move, however, since whispers of Infinity started doing the rounds on July 7, they made a leap.
What has Ubisoft said about Assassin's Creed Infinity?
After Bloomberg and other outlets started the Infinity hype, Ubisoft was left with no other choice but to officially announce it. In a lengthy blog post, the publisher explained how Assassin's Creed Infinity will be split into two teams with two creative directors.
On one side will be Splinter Cell and Watch Dogs Legion's Clint Hocking leading Ubisoft Montreal, while Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Odyssey's Jonathan Dumont in charge at Ubisoft Quebec. The "Infinity Project" will include titles made by both teams, as Syndicate Creative Director Marc-Alexis Côté is now the Executive Producer of the entire AC franchise.
Ubisoft doesn't offer up any further details on what to expect, however, Infinity is dubbed "an important upcoming, early-in-development project". The mention of "early-in-development" suggests we're still a way off being able to hop through multiple periods, however, with all efforts going into Assassins' Creed Valhalla's DLC content, that's no real surprise.
Bloomberg has promised that Project Infinity will help "evolve in a more integrated and collaborative manner that’s less centred on studios and more focused on talent and leadership, no matter where they are within Ubisoft". Although the various studios have often locked horned in a way similar to Treyarch, Infinity Ward, and Sledgehammer jarring with Call of Duty, Ubisoft is clearly looking for a more unified Assassin's Creed future - away from those recent allegations of misconduct.