‘Assassin’s Creed’ Not Skipping 2015, Heading To Victorian London Per Leak

The fact that Assassin’s Creed: Unity for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC was released full of bugs and glitches is not deterring Ubisoft from an annual release in 2015. A leak Tuesday revealed a Victorian London setting for the next Assassin’s Creed, sub-titled Victory, and has been in development for a “few years.”

Information and assets leaked to Kotaku reveal that Assassin’s Creed: Victory is headed to the PS4, Xbox One, and PC in the fall of 2015. This will be the only Assassin’s Creed game for next year, unlike this year that saw the dual release of Unity for the new generation of consoles and Rogue for the last-gen.

The development of Assassin’s Creed: Victory is being led by Ubisoft’s Quebec studio instead of the Montreal studio that developed Unity. The publisher revealed earlier this year that Ubisoft Quebec would head up a future game in the series. That’s apparently sooner rather than later.

Kotaku was given a seven-minute long “target gameplay footage” video of Victory that it described as “slick” enough to pass as an E3 presentation. There is, of course, the climbing of towers and fights on carriages, but also the ability to swap the traditional Assassin’s hood for a top hat. Ubisoft Quebec has also added the grappling hook as a new item to allow the protagonist to swing around the environment.

“The takeaway from the footage isn’t just that Assassin’s Creed is in a new place and era yet again. It’s that, apparently, Ubisoft is pushing for some gameplay innovation. We can see that in the multiple fights on moving vehicles. And we can see that in the introduction of the grappling hook, which seems, at least when used inside a massive, covered train station, to allow the player-controlled character to create literal jumping-off points on the fly. If that grappling hook works the way we think it does, then players would be able to walk into any covered space in Victory, shoot at the ceiling to drop a rope from it and then swing over to assassinate a target–or maybe escape into a crowd? This could significantly change how these games play and how gamers move through an Assassin’s Creed world.”

Ubisoft responded to a PC Gamer request for a statement that appears to confirm the details of the leak.

“It is always unfortunate when internal assets, not intended for public consumption, are leaked. And, while we certainly welcome anticipation for all of our upcoming titles, we’re disappointed for our fans, and our development team, that this conceptual asset is now public. The team in our Quebec studio has been hard at work on the particular game in question for the past few years, and we’re excited to officially unveil what the studio has been working on at a later date. In the meantime, our number one priority is enhancing the experience of Assassin’s Creed Unity for players.

The problems with Assassin’s Creed: Unity are hard to overlook. They are so significant that Ubisoft is giving the planned DLC away for free now and giving those that purchased the Season Pass a free game. However, it’s important to remember games aren’t made overnight and a separate studio will be working on Victory while another works on fixing Unity. This leak came at a bad time for Ubisoft, unfortunately.

What do you think of the Assassin’s Creed: Victory leak? Sound off in the comments below.

[Images via Kotaku, Ubisoft]