A total of ten studios are working on Assassin’s Creed: Unity — three more than Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
Earlier this March, Ubisoft claims that the reason they release a new Assassin’s Creed every year is due to gamers wanting one annually. Now, given that Assassin’s Creed games are AAA, high-budget affairs, how can Ubisoft develop and release an entry year after year? As it turns out, the answer is: tap lots and lots of studios to develop it simultaneously. For this year’s current-gen (PC, PS4 and Xbox One) only entry, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Ubisoft has ten studios working on the game — three more studios compared to Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. This fact was revealed by Ubisoft itself in a slide from its earnings report ending March 31.
The Ubisoft studios working on Assassin’s Creed: Unity include Ubisoft teams based in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec, Montpellier, Annecy, Singapore, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kiev, and Bucharest. In total, Ubisoft houses 29 development teams scattered across different projects. This means that over a third of the publishers studio force are working on the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
You can check out Assassin’s Creed: Unity’s debut trailer here, and we also got a tip that the title will, for the first time, feature a four-player narrative co-op mode that’s set to be revealed at this year’s E3.
Is the studio number surprising to you? What do you predict will happen to these teams once the gaming masses tire of the franchise?