Unfortunately, the title is all we can really say at this point. Ubisoft has officially outed the latest instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise and subtitled it Black Flag.
At this point, that is all Ubisoft is willing to tell anyone publicly, as they’ve cited a March 4th reveal for all the juicy tidbits of information.
What we do know at this point is everything we could gather from the poster that Kotaku leaked a couple of days ago. The protagonist is Edward Kenway, grandfather of Connor Kenway, who we took control of in Assassin’s Creed III. The story will take place around 1715 in the Caribbean islands, presumably with a lot of inter-island travel and warfare at the forefront of the gameplay.
Before we get any actual details, there are a few interesting things about the way that Ubisoft has decided to go with this instalment in the franchise.
The first thing that strikes us is the use of the subtitle Black Flag. The franchise has never carried subtitle for a main entry in the series; the first three games weren’t called anything more than Assassin’s Creed followed by a number.
The series is usually abbreviated by entries between the main storylines of the game, such as we saw with Revelations and Brotherhood, both of which came out between the original game and Assassin’s Creed II. It’s very soon after the release of Assassin’s Creed III to be announcing the next game in the franchise, and it’s curious that Ubisoft chose to do it now. The box art that we’ve seen that references PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 also tells us that the game will be current-gen (as well as next-gen, we’d guess) and will be out this year.
Perhaps the most bizarre thing is that Ubisoft doesn’t seem to be making a huge deal about one of their biggest franchises. Assassin’s Creed is one of the games most associated with Ubisoft, and it is a relatively new franchise, having only originally launched in 2007. The games, therefore, should be very high on Ubisoft’s priority for marketing, but it just doesn’t seem as if they are.
We’ll see what comes to light on March 4th. Until then, feast your eyes on the first official art of the game.
What would you like to see from Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag? Tell us in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook!
