'Assassin's Creed' 2017 release date, news: Future games will no longer focus on narrative

A promotional image for "Assassin's Creed: Syndicate" Ubisoft

The "Assassin's Creed" games feature open-world designs and action packed gameplay, but it also has a strong emphasis on story. Major missions in the games start with a cutscene, and there are many scripted events in the games as well. All of that is going to change in the next game, which is set to launch sometime in 2017.

Speaking to Le Monde (via Polygon), Ubisoft's chief creative officer Serge Hascoet explained that they were changing directions for the future installments in the franchise. This is not the first time they've deviated as they have been refining this approach with games like "Far Cry Primal."

"The game is becoming less important," explained Hascoet. "What interests me is to make worlds that are interesting to me, even as a tourist. I don't want the player to go through a story created by someone. We have games like that still, but I ask more and more that we let the player write their own story."

Hascoet further stated that the goal was to give the player the option of taking the path the designers offered or to stray away and take a different approach. Many gamers will cite "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim," "Dishonored 2," and Ubisoft's own "Watch Dogs 2" as prime examples of this type of play style.

This would mean that the next "Assassin's Creed" game will still have a basic story structure, but getting from Point A to Point B will be entirely up to the player. This will also involve letting the players choose how missions are accomplished and how the story will develop.

It was also pointed out that the developers have chosen to stop releasing "Assassin's Creed" games on an annual basis because this rushed approach ruins the quality of each individual title and very little progress is made. No game is launching this year, allowing the "Assassin's Creed" movie adaptation to take the spotlight.

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