Assassin's Creed Can Be as Big as Grand Theft Auto

Assassin's Creed 2 was one of the biggest launches in the history of French publisher Ubisoft. The game continues to sell well, being cited as an influence in the better than expected sales figures that it has posted for the first quarter of 2010, and the company is also preparing to launch a more multiplayer focused title called Brotherhood during this year. And the hope seems to be that sooner rather than later Assassin's Creed will be on the same level with Grand Theft Auto in terms of popularity.

Murray Pannell, who is in charge of marketing for Ubisoft in the United Kingdom, has told Eurogamer that, “I believe with the success of Assassin's 2 we have now got an opportunity to position ourselves as one of the true triple-A blockbusters. Are we as big as things like GTA and Halo and things of that nature? Possibly not at this point. But I think we are uniquely poised now as a property, as a franchise, to certainly consider ourselves one of the must-have games whenever a game launches on Assassin's Creed in the franchise.”

The battle is not yet evenly matched when it comes to actual sales. Ubisoft is saying that Assassin's Creed 2 has managed to sell close to 9 million copies while Take Two has announced that GTA IV has managed to sell more than 15 million units, without taking into account the two downloadable content episodes which were launched after the main game.

At the moment Ubisoft is preparing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhoord, a game which will see main character Ezio going to Rome in order to take on the Templars in their lair. During the single player campaign gamers will be able to control other assassin characters and send them on missions while in the multiplayer assassin's will stalk and hunt each other.