Assassin's Creed: Will This Historical Game Have a Future?

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Two days ago on February 11, 2016, game developers Ubisoft announced that they would not be publishing a new Assassin's Creed game in 2016. After the release of the first game of the series in November of 2007, Ubisoft has consistently released a game every year, totaling 9 full-length titles as of 2015. But this year, Ubisoft claims it is "re-examining the Assassin's Creed franchise." 

What does this mean for lovers of the series? Well, it is hard to say. Ubisoft has not made any claims in regards to whether they will continue with the series, but they have been having some issues lately with consumer feedback. 

While the early Assassin's Creed titles were widely popular, selling a million copies easily in the first week, the most recent game, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, had a slower start. Compared to the title from 2014, Syndicate did not sell as many copies within the first week, something publishers admitted after the launch. 

Ubisoft attributed the first-week failings to the release of Assassin’s Creed Unity, which had a whole host of problems that gamers were not too shy to complain about. These problems effected the most basic of gameplay experiences, even dropping the frame rate and occasionally crashing the game. It was these failings that most likely made people hesitant to buy the next title.

However, Ubisoft learned from the disastrous release of Unity and Syndicate received fair praise with little complaint. Still, the fact that no new Assassin’s Creed game will come out in 2016 could indicate that the franchise is slowing down. Perhaps this popular series, which has rivaled even Call of Duty in number of titles, might be nearing its end.