Current Events > Jason Schreier: the future of Assassin's Creed is live service

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-07/assassin-s-creed-infinity-to-offer-live-online-game-service

Assassins Creed, a video game franchise set in huge worlds where each one can take hundreds of hours to complete, is getting even bigger. A new project, which is known inside Ubisoft Entertainment SA by the code name Assassins Creed Infinity, sets out to create a massive online platform that evolves over time, according to people familiar with its development.

Whereas previous Assassins Creed games each unfolded in specific historical settings such as ancient Greece or Ptolemaic Egypt, Infinity will contain multiple settings with room to expand to others in the months and years following its debut, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing a project under development. Individual games on the platform might look and feel different, but they will all be connected.

Details surrounding the project, which hasnt been previously reported, are in flux, and its still years away from release. The teams have also been affected by the #MeToo allegations that have swept through the company over the last year.

A spokeswoman for Ubisoft declined to discuss Infinity in detail but acknowledged its existence. Ubisoft aims to exceed the expectations of fans who have been asking for a more cohesive approach to the series, the spokeswoman said. As for sexual misconduct claims, she said Ubisoft had investigated every allegation and took appropriate actions.

Since 2007, Ubisoft has released a new game in the popular action-adventure series every year or two. Collectively, the Assassins Creed games have sold more than 155 million units, easily making it the biggest franchise for the French publisher. The plan to turn Assassins Creed into a so-called service game follows a trend employed by other big publishers.

Inspired by smash hits like Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto V, these living online platforms can keep players engaged for years by frequently adding new content or changing the experience in dramatic ways. The fifth Grand Theft Auto game, which has sold more than 140 million copies largely thanks to its constantly updated multiplayer mode, is approaching its eighth birthday with versions planned for a third generation of game consoles.
Service games generate huge revenue over time by hooking players and pushing them to spend money on special content within the game. GTA V helped drive shares of its publisher, Take-Two Interactive Software Inc., up 42% since the beginning of last year. In the same period, Ubisoft shares were flat.

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Development of an Assassins Creed game typically involves thousands of employees across a dozen Ubisoft offices, led by teams in Montreal or Quebec City that alternate duties. The Montreal team helmed last years Assassins Creed Valhalla, while Quebec ran the previous game, Assassins Creed Odyssey.

For Assassins Creed Infinity, this tradition will also change. In April, Ubisoft unified the Montreal and Quebec teams. Now, they will collaborate on Infinity, and each will have its own creative director, but Quebec will take charge of the franchise. There has long been a rivalry between the two studios that has at times turned acrimonious, according to people familiar with the matter, so this shift may cause some headaches.
The organizational change is designed to help the franchise evolve in a more integrated and collaborative manner thats less centered on studios and more focused on talent and leadership, no matter where they are within Ubisoft, the spokeswoman said.
But the reorganization has rankled some employees at Ubisoft, which is still reeling from last years cultural reckoning over widespread sexual misconduct allegations. Dozens of current and former employees accused Ubisoft of facilitating a culture of misconduct and abuse, leading to the ouster of studio heads and the chief creative officer.

However, some managers accused of abusive behavior remain in senior positions after the reorganization, people familiar with the matter said. That has prompted a fresh round of complaints on Ubisofts internal message board from employees who were dissatisfied with the companys response to the allegations, according to people who read the messages, which were written in French. Bloomberg reviewed English translations.
Last month, the French union Solidaires Informatique said at least three Ubisoft managers in Montreal had been accused of harassment or toxic behavior and that employees had reported other claims of racism and sexism to human resources without anything being done.

The Ubisoft spokeswoman declined to comment on individual cases. Any employee that had allegations and remain at Ubisoft has had their case rigorously reviewed by a third party and were either exonerated or underwent appropriate disciplinary actions, she said. Employees who have been under investigation would not remain at Ubisoft if results of investigations warranted termination.
Ubisoft Montreal has experienced a rise in attrition over the past two months, caused by a variety of factors. In addition to the #MeToo scandal and the reorg, Ubisoft is facing new competition from other video game companies in Montreal. And some employees, tired of working on massive productions, balked at the idea of Assassins Creed Infinity, which may be the most ambitious one yet.

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The part about GTA Online is spot on, a lot of developers are going to copy that business model because they're seeing how successful it is. I admit I still play that game quite a bit, but it's mostly because I use mods and can give myself free money and items so I don't have to spend any real life money.

Thanks R*

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Honestly, this makes sense for AC. I actually think it has a chance to improve the franchise.

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We knew this was coming, and it further invalidates the series in my eyes. Fuck your life service bullshit. This isn't 2017.

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Not sure exactly what this will entail, but I honestly hate when devs cram live features into my single-player games

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Jabodie posted...

Honestly, this makes sense for AC. I actually think it has a chance to improve the franchise.

>live service
>improving a franchise

Pick one

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shut up, jason

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Good news.

It 2021 everyone have internet now.
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Here's how live service works:

The game is launched as a live service, with a million ways for players to spend their cash in it.

Once the game is no longer profitable, the live service is shut down and all the stuff players bought in the game, along with the game itself, will be gone forever.

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This is such a strangely written article. It's like the editor told them to write about AC Infinite, but the writer really super wanted to write about sexual misconduct, so they keep switching back and forth with little segue or relevance given

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Thompson posted...

Here's how live service works:

The game is launched as a live service, with a million ways for players to spend their cash in it.

Once the game is no longer profitable, the live service is shut down and all the stuff players bought in the game, along with the game itself, will be gone forever.

Exactly. It's literally cancer for gaming.

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I know live service gets a bad rep but it's still a good idea in general. If publishers can just let developers create meaningful content rather than flooding an in game store with new costumes and hats an endless game would feel like the future. An Assassin's Creed game that just adds new time periods that you can go between sounds cool. Especially since it's not like they change much between games to begin with. Hell, I'd love this exact thing to happen with Battlefield. However, I don't trust Ubisoft or EA to actually pull something like this off.

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I haven't played a single AssCreed game >_> But I know cancer when I see it

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eston posted...

This is such a strangely written article. It's like the editor told them to write about AC Infinite, but the writer really super wanted to write about sexual misconduct, so they keep switching back and forth with little segue or relevance given

That's probably what actually happened lol.

Either that or he figured gamers would click on this article, but knew they wouldn't click on one about sexual misconduct. Jim Sterling does that particular tactic all the time.

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Jagr_68 posted...

>live service
>improving a franchise

Pick one

I might agree with you, but AC has operated a lot like a live service series for years now. Instead of new games, content drops happen in the same game. The gameplay and mission design of all these entries is pretty mediocre yet somehow enjoyable, and very easy to generate content for. The stories are also really bad, so no loss there. They've already introduced cosmetic microtransactions as early as Unity. The current "climb literally anything" system allows devs to drop in new and creative environments without worrying about the climbing system. Content drops for new locations can easily include the sorts of gameplay gimmicks that come along with new games (like War Frame).

It's difficult for me to see the big hit to quality would be, unlike something like GTA Online where the Online is legitimately terrible because GTA's gameplay mechanics suck ass without writing to back it (imo). AC never really had great writing to back it; it was always the environmental design that mattered. And I don't see why that would be greatly hindered by a live service model. Maybe this even gives the series a chance to bring back its fun multiplayer: both the PVP in the Ezio games and the co-op mode in Unity.

Now, this is contingent on one thing to be beneficial: it doesn't do the CoD model where it's a live service, but they still want you to drop $60 every year. An AC that's supported between 3-5 years with yearly or bi yearly content drops seems like a much better way for the series to deliver its content imo.

Edit: AC as a series already PLAYS like a live service game imo.

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Alucard188 posted...

We knew this was coming, and it further invalidates the series in my eyes. Fuck your life service bullshit. This isn't 2017.

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@Jabodie actually all very good points (for Ubishit anyway) because it is the business model in everything but name, but they're still gonna expect people to pay extra in some sort of season pass package that costs far more than retail price because gamers are so fucking dumb to not support that.

Oh shit I just gave them tips now

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Jagr_68 posted...

@Jabodie actually all very good points (for Ubishit anyway) because it is the business model in everything but name, but they're still gonna expect people to pay extra in some sort of season pass package that costs far more than retail price because gamers are so fucking dumb to not support that.

Oh shit I just gave them tips now

I should say that generally live service has bad results. Like that Marvel game.

Edit: Lol, this is how they scam me. Bring in all the negatives a live services, then make me happy when it becomes an actual live service for the benefits smh.

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specialkid8 posted...

Especially since it's not like they change much between games to begin with.

People always say this about AC, but the last like 5 or 6 games in the series were quite different from each other mechanically. Like they all have the mainstay parkour stuff, but aside from that they all take unique approaches

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GTA online is why there wont be a GTA 6 until 2025, Rockstar keeps milking the old game and idiots keep buying shark cards. No one I know even plays GTA online anymore because it is just the same old bullshit.

I have not played GTA online for over a year because it got boring and the grind was just not fun.

This whole business model of games as a live service needs to end, it allows devs and companies to be lazy as fuck and get easy money for little to no work. New games wont come out because of this and again GTA is glaring proof of this.

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There was some of this in AC Odyssey. Weekly updates, always more loot to collect... Tbh I enjoyed that stuff, and I'm curious to see how this shakes out

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Pass.

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I don't like games as a service either, but I'm not sure I'd call stuff like GTA V lazy when they've been continuously pumping out new content for it for years. Functionally there really isn't much difference between that and working on a new game

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lmao I had no idea they merged the Quebec and Montreal teams, what a fucking awful idea.
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Reminds me of Dragonball Xenoverse 2, the game released in 2016 and is still getting yearly content even if said content is lame, their most recent is Jiren using his full power and most likely Ultra Instinct Signs Goku. And seeing as there's a movie due out next year xenoverse 2 will likely bring in characters, costumes and attacks from that movie as well that same year.

It sucks, they do all this yet they won't do anything like improve the customization features to include more hairstyles, add in missing transformations, add in the ability to colorize more costumes to your liking or gie players another single mode campaign story to go through.

Console games have effectively embraced the gacha model and it's only gonna get worse with the success of Genshin Impact, a game that's chalk full of this kind of practice because companies and social media have made society turn into a bunch of people with f.o.m.o syndrome. Fear of Missing Out

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and there goes the future of me playing the series

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eston posted...

I don't like games as a service either, but I'm not sure I'd call stuff like GTA V lazy when they've been continuously pumping out new content for it for years. Functionally there really isn't much difference between that and working on a new game

This is true. I just think the MP content of GTA:O sucks. I think AC content would work pretty well in a live service model, though.

"They dropped a new Polynesian area in AC Infinite! Let's check it out in co-op." Meanwhile I'll be playing the new pvp map and some Moana crossover ship missions.

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https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/GZi5hT4dBeM8YITOsJeCn/an-update-on-assassins-creed-infinity-and-the-future-of-the-assassins-creed-franchise

Ubisoft confirmed it hahahahaha
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I hate that Ubisoft is pushing all their games in this direction.

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint was such a heaping pile of garbage because of this shit.

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Jabodie posted...

"They dropped a new Polynesian area in AC Infinite! Let's check it out in co-op." Meanwhile I'll be playing the new pvp map and some Moana crossover ship missions.

Then they really would all be the same >_>

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I don't usually mind the concept of live-service, but there's a time and place for them. I don't want existing franchises to adopt that model, and I don't want them permeating throughout the entire gaming space.

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This is bad news bears for the AC franchise, as that means it will never actually have another new game once this bullshit comes out for years. The whole point of these games was telling the stories of different people in different locations and vastly different lives.

AC is going to become stagnant just like GTA has been with GTA V being the only game for 7 or 8 years.

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Then AC is dead
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Awesome

BakonBitz posted...

I don't usually mind the concept of live-service, but there's a time and place for them. I don't want existing franchises to adopt that model, and I don't want them permeating throughout the entire gaming space.

Especially with a series that is already massively popular as-is, it just doesn't make any sense to me

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I think they figure people will buy it regardless because of the popularity of the game and they are probably right.

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Jagr_68 posted...

Exactly. It's literally cancer for gaming.

Online only = piss off.

always.

Big no from me dawg

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This will kill the series

The most recent AC game I have touched is Revelations, but still I always am curious to learn the next new setting in the series. This is not what I was expecting

This possibly will be the last AC game ever made. They will try to milk it for like 10 years like gta 5. Longtime fans will leave and only whales will keep it afloat for years
Eventually the game will be shut down and the series will be dead because nobody will have any interest anymore

all future games will be this

Zikten posted...

This will kill the series

The most recent AC game I have touched is Revelations, but still I always am curious to learn the next new setting in the series. This is not what I was expecting

This possibly will be the last AC game ever made. They will try to milk it for like 10 years like gta 5. Longtime fans will leave and only whales will keep it afloat for years
Eventually the game will be shut down and the series will be dead because nobody will have any interest anymore

is this copy pasta lol

ubisoft will make a new AC game, they don't know how to make a game with the longevity of something like GTA 5.

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Hexenherz posted...

is this copy pasta lol

ubisoft will make a new AC game, they don't know how to make a game with the longevity of something like GTA 5.

No I wrote it myself from my brain.

Interesting. idk I think a lot of that won't come to pass. Not saying later AC games will be good, either, but there will be other AC games.

Also Origins and Valhalla weren't too terrible.

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They should have just made a limited number of games with an endgoal in sight. We will never get my dream game

You play in 2 time periods. In modern day you are fighting alongside modern Assassins in a final battle against the Tenplars. When you use the Animus you experience "Adam and Eve" the literal first Assassins. And battle the first Templars and possibly see the pre Human civilization before it fell.

The main reason I dont like live games is because I just don't like sticking with one game that long. Once I'm done playing them I like to bounce and move on to something else. Like monster hunter, I love it, but I'm not going to play for years and do all these tiny little drip feed quests they give you one at a time. That's just dumb.
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Zikten posted...

They should have just made a limited number of games with an endgoal in sight. We will never get my dream game

You play in 2 time periods. In modern day you are fighting alongside modern Assassins in a final battle against the Tenplars. When you use the Animus you experience "Adam and Eve" the literal first Assassins. And battle the first Templars and possibly see the pre Human civilization before it fell.

Yeah that would have been awesome. I was confused as shit when I went through the original games and got into the modern day story and then... they dropped all the modern day stuff after 3. Was so disappointed.

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Hayame Zero posted...

huge worlds where each one can take hundreds of hours to complete

bs, i 100% odyssey in 50

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Schreier doing god's work in telling us never to buy an AC game ever again.
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Live service is cancer, and does not improve gaming in a meaningful, long standing way.

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