Future AC games will be connected via a live service, Ubisoft confirms. Insider Jason Scheier provides more info, but much remains unclear.

Update as of July 7, 2021, 3:30 p.m.: Ubisoft has confirmed the mysterious “Infinity” project for Assassin’s Creed via a blog entry. There, however, only the collaboration between the studios is highlighted. What the service idea looks like in detail and how it will concretely affect the brand for us players in the future remains fuzzy apart from Schreier’s statements below.

All we know is that Ubisoft Montréal and Quebec are focusing on the future of Assassin’s Creed together, rather than alternately, and will determine the development of the series over the coming years. Infinity, as a project in an early stage of development, is an important part of that. Considering that, though, a lot can change – even if Schreier’s statements are true at the moment.

Original news story: The future of Assassin’s Creed is to be called Live Service. That’s what well-known and usually well-informed industry insider Jason Schreier writes in a recent Bloomberg report. Ubisoft is said to be working on a huge platform under the internal name “Assassin’s Creed Infinity”. What exactly does that mean?

New live service announced, but much unclear

Summarising the key info from the Schreier report and his Twitter feed:

– Assassin’s Creed Infinity is to be an online platform that will link multiple settings together. Schreier talks about “individual games that will look and feel different but be connected”. On Twitter, he describes it as a possible gaming hub.

– A Ubisoft spokeswoman is said to have confirmed Infinity’s existence, but did not let details slip. She said they wanted to make fans happy who had been asking for more connected games. In the meantime, an official blog entry from Ubisoft followed, which, however, also remains superficial.

– Infinity is not scheduled for release until 2024. According to Schreier, much remains unknown for the time being – and a lot could change in the direction of the project in the meantime.
Ubisoft Montreal (AC Valhalla) and Ubisoft Quebec (AC Odyssey) are to be jointly responsible for Infinity, instead of alternating as before.

Did Call of Duty and GTA serve as a model?

It is not yet clear from the report or blog what this means for the future of Assassin’s Creed. At first glance, the whole thing sounds like concepts like GTA 5 and GTA Online – or Call of Duty: Warzone, which also combines several parts of the series.

Of course, this does not mean that Infinity will be an AC Battle Royale! But linking individual games could at least look something like this. In the case of Call of Duty, the map, weapons and so on change in Warzone because other elements are added via a new part like Cold War.

In the case of Assassin’s Creed, for example, there could be a kind of overarching present-day story from which you break into the individual scenarios. Then Ubisoft would, in a way, outsource the part that always felt somewhat detached from the rest in the individual games anyway. A kind of shared world with more multiplayer elements would also be possible. At least co-op already existed in AC.

The future of single player Assassins Creeds remains uncertain

Even Schreier himself is apparently not quite sure what exactly Infinity is supposed to become:

NEW: The future of Assassin’s Creed is live service. Ubisoft Montreal and Quebec have teamed up for Assassin’s Creed Infinity, a huge platform planned to have multiple settings. But after the reorg, several men accused of abuse remain in charge. My latest: https://t.co/fre2ljvh8g

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 7, 2021

“Details on Assassin’s Creed Infinity are still up in the air because it won’t be out until 2024 or even later, but it could be some kind of hub that allows people to play multiple Assassin’s Creeds small and large. Or Ubisoft could say ‘what the hell’ and give it up in three years to chase the next trend.”

We’ve made additional enquiries with Ubisoft about what this means for single player games in the future. As soon as we know more, we’ll let you know, of course!

Luckily, we already know a little more about the future of AC Valhalla. The next DLC, The Siege of Paris, was presented at E3 and is scheduled for release in the summer of 2021.