Ubisoft Montreal CEO Yannis Mallat has informed Eurogamer he believes there's no fear of the Assassin's Creed franchise becoming stale anytime soon.
"No, the players will tell us," Mallat said. "Right now there are more and more coming into the franchise so I don't see that happening.
"It's our breakthrough. When you have quality content, the frequency of coming out with the game is not an issue at all. On the contrary, people expect more and more of that content. The gamers are happy and it's our job to make them happy," Mallat added.
For now, Mallet's assessment seems accurate, Assassin's Creed 3 has sold 12 million copies and represents the biggest launch in Ubisoft's history, doubling the launch week performance of Assassin's Creed 2.
"When we say we're annualising the franchise, we don't say the teams only have one year to work on a project. Assassin's Creed is mature enough in terms of reaching the critical mass of players of players and community, but also in terms of envisioning enough content for years to come, and in terms of technology to sustain all that," Mallat said.
Seven studios are working on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flags but not all of the teams within those studios are actively involved in the game's development Mallat revealed.
"We have several teams. So they are resting. The team that has delivered Assassin's Creed 3, they're not working on Black Flags. They're resting. They are refreshing their minds and then working on something else that is not announced," he commented.
Yesterday Ubisoft Toronto boss Jade Raymond revealed her studio is actively working on an unannounced Assassin's Creed project. Earlier this month game box art for Assassin's Creed: Rising Phoenix appeared on a Spanish website suggesting the title – which has yet to be officially revealed – is a PlayStation Vita game.