Put Your Knives Away: No New Assassin's Creed In 2016

Since 2009's Assassin's Creed II, Ubisoft have released a new open-world murder playground every single year. Not in 2016. AC will indeed be taking a rest for a bit of a reworking, as was rumoured. I wonder if that means the Ancient Egypt setting for the next entry that rumourmongers mentioned is real too. Point is, Ubi are skipping 2016 and planning to return later with something fresher. Say, I wonder if Watch Dogs 2 will fill that October/November slot now open in Ubi's lineup for this year.

Ubisoft announced the break in a blog post:

"This year, we also are stepping back and re-examining the Assassin's Creed franchise. As a result, we've decided that there will not be a new Assassin's Creed game in 2016. Since the release of Assassin's Creed Unity, we've learned a lot based on your feedback. We've also updated our development processes and recommitted to making Assassin’s Creed a premier open-world franchise. 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."

Of course, this doesn't mean there are no new Assassin's Creed games in 2016 - two have already come out, in the shape of 2.5D spin-offs Assassin's Creed Chronicles: India and Chronicles: Russia. But no all-singing, all-dancing, all-murdering 'proper' £40 Assassin's Creed.

"This may well be my favourite Assassin's Creed game," Adam said about 2015's Syndicate. That's a good note to pause on.

When the rumours started floating around, we asked hypothetically what all y'all would like to see the series do if it took time out to rethink things. I quite enjoyed your many differing responses.