In a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Karl Onnée, the lead producer of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, gave his thoughts on the game’s development cycle and what it takes to make a new Assassin’s Creed game in 2024. As the fourteenth major installment in the series, expectations remain at an all-time high for the upcoming title, set in 16th-century Japan.
“We always want to go better, which is what we’re trying to do with Shadows. We are pushing the limits of what we can do,” said Onnée.
“It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate. Yes, you can put more people on a project and do it in a shorter time, but that doesn’t give you more time to iterate, because it takes time to get the feedback from your players, your team…and then see what works and what doesn’t and how to improve it. Four years, I think, is the right balance to go from conception to production and get the feedback necessary to adapt.”
The last entry in the series, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, was released in October 2023 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Smaller in scale than other recent titles in the franchise, Mirage aimed to return to the series’ roots with a heavy focus on parkour and stealth rather than more complex role-playing elements.
“We are trying to create a game that is as authentic as possible. It’s something we take pride in,” Onnée continued. “And that is also a very long process. When we build a Japanese house from feudal Japan, it is very different from, say, a French medieval house or an English one.
These are some of the small things that are very important, because you get a better sense of the dimensions of the building, of the culture, of monuments and shrines that are still standing today…it is important to represent all that correctly.”
Since the start of the franchise in 2007, Assassin’s Creed games have sold over 200 million copies worldwide, making it Ubisoft’s best-selling franchise and one of the highest-selling video game franchises of all time. A live-action film based on the series starring Michael Fassbender and Jeremy Irons was released in 2016.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on November 15, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
