14 DAY TRIAL // A representative for publisher Ubisoft has disclosed tracking data showing that about 60 percent of players who have bought Assassin's Creed II have not finished the single player narrative, even though some gamers have protested when the game launched that the experience felt too short.
The data comes from the uPlay online service which Ubisoft has recently implemented for all of its titles and Gaelec Simard, who is the mission director working on the upcoming Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, says that the 40 percent of gamers who actually completed the game show that the story is interesting, considering the average completion rate for video games stands at between 5 and 10%.
Gaelec Simard says, “We all think people finish games, but when you start asking around, you'll find that a lot of people don't get to the end. We want the player to experience the whole package, so that's something we're trying to push.”
A study published about Grand Theft Auto IV suggested that only 30 percent of those who bought the game finished the story of main character Niko.
The fact that gamers can complain that a game is too short while only a minority of them actually complete it shows the disconnect between the more hardcore gaming crowd and the overall audience for video games.
The single player portion of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is set to stand at about 15 hours.
But the main selling point for the new game in the series is the addition, for the first time for the franchise, of multiplayer.
Players will be able to chose from a gallery of characters and chase each other all through the city of Rome, playing a deadly game of cat and mouse.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is set to be released on November 16 in the United States and on the 19th in Europe, for the PlayStation 3, the Xbox 360 and the PC.