There Are WAY Too Many Assassin’s Creed Games

I actually laughed when I heard there was a new Assassin’s Creed game coming out. Not because the game sounded bad or seemed funny. No, I laughed because I have hit a point where this has become completely bonkers and hilarious. Recently released was Assassin’s Creed Identity, a mobile 3D action game which uses touchscreen controls. The game is available now in New Zealand, where it was soft launched. Do you know when the last mobile Assassin’s Creed game was released? August. As in less than two months ago. Assassin’s Creed Identity now joins an already long list of Assassin’s Creed games released or coming out this year. 2014 Assassin’s Creed games are *takes a deep breath*... Assassins Creed Liberation HD, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles, Assassin’s Creed Memories, Assassin’s Creed Unity, and Assassin’s Creed Rogue. In February we got the standalone release of Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry. And while we're here Assassin’s Creed Pirates was released a few weeks before 2014 started and just recently, had a massive update and went free to play. (To be fair, Assassin's Creed Identity isn't coming out globally till next year.) This is insane.

Too Many, Too Quick

People give Activision a lot of crap for releasing a Call of Duty every year, but at least we don’t get three Call of Dutys every few months. Activision seemed to have learned their lesson, after they pushed out way too many Guitar Heroes in a short amount of time and helped kill that franchise. Will Ubisoft do the same to the Assassin’s Creed series? Time will tell, but I feel it's a real possibility. I can say personally that, I have zero interest in the new Assassin’s Creed games. I barely can keep track of what is coming out and what is out this year and Ubisoft is STILL announcing new AC games. How many more will we get announced before the end of this year? Hopefully none. If Ubisoft continues to pump out Assassin’s Creed games like this, I worry that people will start to tune out and get fatigued. Releasing game after game after game in a short period of time will eventually cause some to feel overwhelmed or confused. Assassin’s Creed could easily become so boring and overdone to some that, they just walk away from the series.

Waiting Can Be A Good Thing

The opposite of this approach is the way Rockstar has handled the Grand Theft Auto series. Look at the amount of time between GTA IV and GTA V. Almost five years. This does seem like a long time. Maybe people will forget about your series if you wait that long…? Or your game will become one of the most successful video game launches in history. GTAV outsold GTA IV in less than six weeks. It was a mega hit. And I think a lot of that had to do with the wait between games. It created a sense of excitement. I am huge Grand Theft Auto fan and I would check out the forums and fansites and the feeling of anticipation and desire was high. People were spending months dissecting screenshots and trailers, piecing together a map of the game from what details they could find, setting up groups dedicated to finding new posters or nuggets of info. The build up to GTA V was crazy. People were spending hours of their day just to hear a little more about the game. I’m not saying there aren’t any crazy Assassin’s Creed fans out there. I know there are. But the feeling I’ve gotten from a lot of people I know and people I see online seems to be different than with GTA V. People seem less excited and the overall feeling of “I NEED THIS GAME RIGHT NOW” doesn't seem as high as it has been in the series’ past. This feels like an inevitability. Constantly releasing games from one franchise so quickly seems like it will only lead to franchise fatigue. And now Ubisoft has TWO main Assassin’s Creed games coming out this year, Rogue and Unity. So if you are a super fan of Assassin’s Creed you will need two different consoles and have to buy two different games to get the full Assassin’s Creed “Story” this year. Non-superfans will probably pick up one...or maybe none.

A Graveyard of Plastic Guitars & Skateboards

Looking at the last game, Black Flag, the sales numbers seem to be showing some of this fatigue. Black Flag sold less than the previous game. I’m curious to see how Rogue and Unity do this year. After a year already filled with AC announcements and releases how will TWO more Assassin’s Creed games fare. Especially considering one of these games looks very similar to the last game. Like, very similar. I have to admit, it’s hard to get excited for a new Assassin’s Creed game, when every few months there is a new Assassin’s Creed announced. I know some out there are fine with this. There are probably people reading this who are eating up all the games in the Assassin’s Creed series. That’s great! I hope people who love this franchise are ready for more and have a great time playing these games. And luckily for them, it seems Ubisoft certainly has no plans to stop any time soon. But for me I've lost interest in the franchise. This is a series I once adored. I use to get excited for the new Assassin’s Creed.  Now I can’t even name all the games coming out this year without looking online. I just feel exhausted thinking about it. I do hope that the series slows down a bit. Takes a break. Let people start to miss the series and then come back a few years later and show us something amazing and new. Unity looks cool and could be a lot of fun, but it's hard to get excited for it when, every few weeks I have to hear about another Assassin’s Creed game. So Ubisoft, maybe slow down a bit. Otherwise you might drive this series right off a cliff and into a graveyard filled with unsold copies of Tony Hawk Pro Skater: Proving Ground and Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.