Ashraf Ismail, Director of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, is working on something new. Could it be the next Assassin’s Creed title?
A couple of months ago, Ubisoft released a statement saying that in 2016 they were going to take a break from its pattern of releasing a new Assassin’s Creed title every year. They elaborated on why such a sabbatical was necessary:
“We’re taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we’re delivering on the promise of Assassin’s Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone’s playground.”
What this essentially means is that the team was feeling burnt out and they needed some time to figure out a coherent direction for the series after an incredibly hit-and-miss last few years. Case in point; Assassin’s Creed: Rogue barely registered on anyone’s radar, Unity was a buggy and broken mess, and Syndicate was decent but was a victim of a market flooded with games from this series.
In fact, the last game in the series to receive near-unanimous praise was 2013’s pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. It was directed by Ashraf Ismail, who reveals in his Twitter bio that he is currently working on an ‘Unannounced project’. Speaking of Twitter, last week in an interaction with a fan, Ismail responded to a fan’s compliment with the following tweet:
@RinoTheBouncer thank you for the kind message! Wait till you see whats coming 😉
— Ashraf Ismail (@AshrafAIsmail) April 21, 2016
Okay, it’s obviously not an announcement or even an acknowledgement of what he’s specifically working on. HOWEVER, seeing as how developers are generally extremely tight-lipped about projects they’re working on, the fact that he’s making any kind of reference to his would suggest that some kind of announcement may be coming soon.
This of course brings up all sorts of excitement about the next Assassin’s Creed game. Assuming Ismail is in fact working on the next installment, one can’t help but wonder what its setting will be; will it continue with the adventures of Jacob and Evie from Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate, will it tie in with this year’s Assassin’s Creed movie, or will it be something completely different? One thing we do know is that on the strength of his previous work, there will be many eyes on Ismail and Ubisoft as E3 approaches. What setting would you like to see the for next Assassin’s Creed game? Egypt? Japan? Houston? Let us know in the comments.
[Source: GamingBolt]
