How does Ubisoft continuously launch Assassin’s Creed titles?

In recent years, Ubisoft has continuously produced Assassin’s Creed titles at a breakneck pace, at least one game per year. But it seems it has leveled off with Assassin’s Creed Origins. Now, Ubisoft has announced the process of how Assassin’s Creed titles come out so quickly.

After the initial release of Assassin’s Creed in 2007, Ubisoft produced at least one main Assissin’s Creed title once a year from 2009 until 2015. At the time of 2015, the studio began dropping its annual game release plan. to focus more time developing each new game. This decision has taken the series to new heights and has been hailed as a positive step from the Assassin’s Creed Origins director.

Jean Guesdon, the man responsible for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, released the statistics during his annual Game Developers Conference talk, held last month in San Francisco.

Speaking at GDC, Guesdon explained that the release schedule for Assassin’s Creed titles wouldn’t have been possible without multiple teams working on multiple titles at the same time.

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“This can only be done with multiple teams,” he said, “I’m not talking about multiple teams collaborating on a game. This is a whole new thing.”

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The statistics he provided show some interesting aspects of this series’ development history, which no one knew before. For example, the stats show that Assassin’s Creed Unity actually started in 2011, a year before the development of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, even though the AC4 game came out a year before Unity in 2013. But AC4 more engaging content with less development time.

Of course, this chart is a simplified version of the real development process. Of course, the team in Ubisoft has to work more collaboratively than that. Some Ubisoft studios develop an aspect of the game, like Ubisoft Singapore developing the secret missions in earlier Assassin’s Creed games, and the naval combat in later games. Ubisoft Singapore is also the main studio developing Skull and Bones, Ubisoft’s new pirate game.

Guesdon then revealed the Assassin’s Creed Origins development map showing the studios developing each side and coming together to make the game. He explained that Ubisoft wants to put the focus on “co-development”, multiple studios developing a game at the same time, instead of studios collaborating on developing multiple titles at the same time.

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“Without Sofia and Singapore, the world of Assassin’s Creed Origins wouldn’t be the same. They make up a big part of the game’s world, missions, and big system.”

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We’ll have to wait and see if Ubisoft’s new development approach continues to succeed after the launch of Assassin’s Creed Origins, but the latest installment of AC shows it’s the right move. After announcing plans to release DLC for Origins, Ubisoft has yet to announce any future projects for Assassin’s Creed, although there are rumors that they have already prepared the setting for the sequel.