Since the first game was released in 2007, Assassin's Creed has dominated gamers' attention. The franchise chronicles the ongoing battle between Assassins and Templars, featuring several historical settings, including everything from Ancient Egypt in Origins to the Industrial Revolution in Syndicate. More recent games such as Valhalla and Odyssey have focused on a more story-based, open-world RPG style, but the core of the games, especially the mysteries uncovered and the engaging parkour elements, have remained a constant.
2022 saw the announcement of the next stage in the Assassin's Creed franchise: Assassin's Creed Infinity. And while there was initially some confusion about the nature of this announcement, a recent Ubisoft interview with IGN answered a lot of fans' questions. Here's what is known so far.
What Is Assassin's Creed Infinity?
Unlike what some fans originally thought, Assassin's Creed Infinity is not a game, per se. As discussed in the IGN interview with the franchise's Executive Producer Marc-Alexis Côté, Infinity is a "hub" that's designed to act much like the in-game Animus, the virtual reality technology that allows the user to explore different timelines. With Infinity, "new entries in the series will be displayed as DNA memories rather than games." He goes on to call Assassin's Creed Infinity "the home of the modern day or 'meta' storyline of the series."
Assassin's Creed Infinity will link past and future Assassin's Creed games in a whole new way, as one of Côté's visions for the project is to unite the different offshoots of Ubisoft that have played parts in creating games in the franchise, pulling all content under one umbrella. With Assassin's Creed Infinity also comes longer development cycles that will make the franchise more "sustainable" in the eyes of Côté. So, while fans may not get new games at the same rate they're used to, the quality and livelihood of the ones released will be better in the long run.
How the Franchise Evolves With Assassin's Creed Infinity
Assassin's Creed Infinity is not just a way to load up and play the new Assassin's Creed games, though that is part of it. Côté says that the franchise, which hasn't experimented with multiplayer much in the past, will do so under Assassin's Creed Infinity through a project called Invictus. There is not much known yet about how this will work, but the concept of multiplayer games is intriguing. He also makes a point to stress that Assassin's Creed Infinity will be less focused on just adding to the old games. Stacking extra content onto games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Assassin's Creed Odyssey, while profitable, isn't what he wants the series to be known for. He, therefore, promises to expand the worlds of Assassin's Creed and make them "less static and more malleable."
So far, there is one game that's being released before Assassin's Creed Infinity. Assassin's Creed Mirage, releasing in 2023, is set in ninth-century Baghdad and follows a mischievous street thief as he's brought into the Brotherhood. The game, according to Ubisoft, will act as a middle ground between the older and newer styles of the games, making it the perfect precursor to Assassin's Creed Infinity -- the games of which strive to diversify the playstyles the franchise offers.
Two games have already been announced as the first to be offered through Assassin's Creed Infinity. The first is one that comes long anticipated for fans: Codename Red, which will take place in Feudal Japan. While the specific story hasn't been confirmed by Ubisoft, the announcement art alone has sparked praise and excitement among fans.
The second game set to release on Assassin's Creed Infinity has even less public information than the first. Codename Hexe is rumored to be set during the witch trials of 16th-century Europe and could be more horror-centric than Assassin's Creed games have been in the past. Neither Codename Hexe nor Codename Red has a confirmed release date, but they will come after Assassin's Creed Infinity launches.
What Questions Remain
Various interviews on the subject have brought up that Assassin's Creed Infinity will not be free-to-play, but details on how payment will work have not been clarified. Whether it's a paid subscription by the month or if it charges by the game has yet to be revealed. Additionally, Côté wants to involve more standalone multiplayer games in the franchise as opposed to just adding multiplayer options to games that were built to be played alone, but it hasn't been confirmed if Codename Red and Codename Hexe will fall under this umbrella.
When WIll Infinity Be Released?
While the release date has not yet been confirmed, Assassin's Creed Infinity is predicted to launch sometime in 2024. It has not yet been confirmed which consoles it will be available on, but it will likely at least be available on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. With its release, Ubisoft hopes that "the future of Assassin's Creed is one where we can be a source of hope in today's world, in helping people understand their past."