Ubisoft has said the studio intends to move on from the saga of Assassin’s Creed protagonist Desmond.
Assassin’s Creed 3 creative lead, Alex Hutchinson, explained during a recent press conference (via Polygon):
It’s more like the Twilight Zone. There’s always a guy introducing it and he’s there every episode, but each game completes its own story. Assassin’s Creed one was Altair’s story. Ezio has been and gone. You can engage with these historical stories individually without having to necessarily understand Desmond’s story. But yes, we eventually do have to wrap it up.
I think what you do is you finish it. I always pitched it to the guys on this game to think of it almost like Star Trek. Each game is a season… each big number is a sub-title. We’re not changing the universe, but we’re being given the reigns to the equivalent of The Next Generation. Yes, it’s the Star Trek universe, and that has certain immutable laws and there’s a base kind of tone to it, but within that you can do whatever you want.
Hutchinson added that things that go on for too long – in this case, the Desmond storyline – “lack resonance”:
I think Desmond needs to end, at some point. You know what I mean? Things that go on too long lack resonance. We’re asking people to remember seven years worth of story. Which is like saying you were in junior high and now you’re finishing college. And you need to remember what you were doing in junior high.
He concluded by briefly discussing Assassin’s Creed 3, which could apparently be passed off as a new IP without actually being one, due to the installment being “90% a new game”:
Without Desmond, we could have called it anything else, and people would have said okay. It’s just we like the wrapper of being an assassin and being in this continuing war against Templars. There’s huge value in that. But [AC3] is 90% a new game.
Assassin’s Creed 3 is currently scheduled for a release on October 30th in North America and on the 31st throughout European regions.
