Assassin’s Creed series might not return with yearly releases

There's a lot that the Assassin's Creed series got right and a couple of things that it got wrong. One of the things they got wrong might have been annualizing the series. Luckily, Ubisoft is giving Assassin's Creed a break this year saying that they are "stepping back and re-examining" the action-adventure franchise.

When the Assassin's Creed series does make its eventual return, it may not see a new game released every year like it has for the past six or more years.

"The goal is not automatically to come back on annual cycle but to come on a regular basis," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot in response to a question during Ubisoft's Investor Day. "What we are seeing today is promising. We will be able to come on a regular basis [but] we can't say every year."

Later on, during the same presentation, the subject was brought up again. This time, chief financial officer Alain Martinez explained that the series could go back to having yearly releases.

"We have focused one of our best teams behind what we are working on Assassin's Creed. We have given them all the time for releasing something that we hope to be exceptional. We are setting up rules so that they will have enough time to polish the game and come with something really exceptional, so this is what we have for our first priority.

"Then after that, if we feel like we are in the right direction and that we can continue the path and we have enough innovation for the next one, we might come with the next one in the next year. But it's no longer something that will be set up every year."

It really sounds like Ubisoft is trying to figure out where to take Assassin's Creed from this point on. One of the reasons for this might be the crossover into the film industry. Regardless, it will be interesting to see where they go with the series from here on out.