Report: Ubisoft’s next Assassin’s Creed will be a live service game

The next game in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise will unfold across multiple historical settings and receive persistent updates, according to Bloomberg’s reporting. The game, which is currently codenamed “Assassin’s Creed Infinity,” will join the likes of Fortnite and Apex Legends by offering ongoing updates to keep players engaged.

Recent entries in the 14-year-old Assassin’s Creed franchise have ballooned in size. The most recent title, 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, could easily take more than 100 hundred hours to fully explore and complete. In this sense, the Assassin’s Creed games have already offered a live service game experience by allowing players to truly devote huge chunks of their time to completing every side quest. This upcoming Assassin’s Creed game will be the next logical step in the trend.

Since this upcoming game will have to incorporate ongoing, persistent updates, it won’t take place in just one historical time period, as previous Assassin’s Creed games have done. instead, it’ll contain multiple settings, with the potential to include even more as time goes on. A spokesperson for Ubisoft told Bloomberg that the team hopes to “exceed the expectations of fans who have been asking for a more cohesive approach” to the series.

But unidentified sources told Bloomberg that some complications remain in the development pipeline. Last year, multiple senior leaders at Ubisoft were accused of harassment and abuse. Bloomberg’s sources said that “some managers accused of abusive behavior remain in senior positions after the reorganization.”

Asked about this, a Ubisoft spokesperson said, “Employees who have been under investigation would not remain at Ubisoft if results of investigations warranted termination.” The spokesperson also declined to comment on individual cases.