The company wants to keep making great games every year

Dec 20, 2012 10:16 GMT  ·  By

Ubisoft has talked about its Assassin's Creed franchise and how it doesn't want the yearly installments in the series to suffer in terms of quality because such a mistake would prove deadly for the company.

Assassin's Creed 1 impressed quite a few gamers back in 2007, but the franchise really dazzled the games industry in 2009, with the release of Assassin's Creed 2. Since then, every year has seen the launch of a new Assassin's Creed title, from Brotherhood, to Revelations, to this year's Assassin's Creed 3.

Even if some people criticized Ubisoft for using its global studios to keep releasing new titles, the French publisher, through the voice of its UK marketing manager Tony Key, says it makes sure that each game is of a high quality, not just a glorified add-on or expansion.

"You want to avoid the appearance of a glorified add-on pack and every publisher is guilty of that at one time or another in this day and age," Key told the A List.

"But now, the bar has just gotten too high for that in AAA gaming. That goes with the marketing too, by the way. The resources to do AAA marketing are bigger than they ever have been. So the top games are selling more and the other games don't make back their money."

Key also highlighted that the nature of the American Revolution required a different type of marketing around the world. While North Americans are certainly familiar with the conflict and its key figures, gamers from other regions might not respond that well to certain messages.

"There were definite tonal differences between the ads for Assassin's Creed III in Europe as opposed to America," he said. "Ultimately, we're just trying to tell our story that's relevant to the audience. To people in Europe, you'll get a different response than in America."

"Our idea is to act locally and make a relevant message for the consumer; we're not trying to mislead and are presenting a message that's relevant to the audience. I don't want to shove a Founding Fathers ad in the face of an Italian consumer and that's the conclusion our Italian counterparts came to."

Did any Assassin's Creed game disappoint you in terms of quality or do you think Ubisoft has managed to release great games in the series?