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It seems like 2027 might be a light year for Assassin's Creed fans.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another GRTV News. Today we're going to be talking about a rumour that started doing the rounds last night, quite a big rumour actually, once again about Ubisoft and this time about the Assassin's Creed franchise.
So late yesterday a report came out from a couple of insiders who basically said that Ubisoft did have plans for a mainline Assassin's Creed game in 2027, a game that would probably be the one that follows codename Hexay, which is supposed to be, well thought to be coming out in 2026."
"But it looks like this 2027 game will no longer be happening and it likely means that there's going to be a gap in the Assassin's Creed schedule because of it.
The reason for that is that the game has been cancelled internally, seemingly because Ubisoft fears for the sort of political turbulence it could cause.
There's some, I wouldn't say dicey, but there are some conflicting storylines being used in the game and with the current state and the current political environment and climate that we exist in, Ubisoft looked at it and thought it's probably not a good idea to do it."
"Especially considering the backlash that the company received for including Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows. So let's take a look.
So yes, Assassin's Creed 2027 was cancelled because it had a black former slave as a playable character. The game was supposed to be set after the American Civil War.
So yeah, three years ago Ubisoft announced a bunch of Assassin's Creed games and their plans for the franchise's future. The game, codenamed Project Red, released earlier this year as Assassin's Creed Shadows."
"And Assassin's Creed codename Hexay is expected to launch in 2026. Side note, it's strange that we still don't know what codename Hexay is actually supposed to be called.
And it's strange that it's still under that because they even renamed, Jade's not here yet. It was codenamed Jade and they just decided to call it Assassin's Creed Jade.
But yeah, we're still calling it codename Hexay because they haven't actually shown anything from the game since that date. Very unusual."
"But what about 2027? Well, it seems like we might not get a big mainline entry then. And it sounds like the reasons for it are rather unusual and controversial.
Steven Totilo and Tom Henderson, both very reliable journalists, have spoken with sources at Ubisoft that claim the Assassin's Creed game meant to launch in 2027 has been cancelled.
Fair enough. Maybe Ubisoft just didn't think it seemed fun or good enough. You say. Not exactly."
"Because Assassin's Creed 2027 was supposed to be set after the American Civil War, around the 1860s and 1870s to be exact.
And have a black former slave protagonist that would, among other things, go up against the Ku Klux Klan in the South.
To quote one of Totilo's sources, too political in a country, too unstable to make it short.
The longer version, three sources told Totilo that they heard Ubisoft had two main reasons to cancel Assassin's Creed 2027."
"The online backlash that rose around having Yasuke, a historically inspired black samurai, as one of the protagonists in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Concerns that the political climate in the United States was becoming increasingly tense.
Not exactly common reasons for cancelling a game, but certain parts of the Internet's reactions to games like Assassin's Creed Shadows, Dragon Age, The Veil Guard and The Last of Us Part 2 does to some extent make it understandable that a gaming company under increasingly tougher pressure decided to play it safe."
"What do you think about cancelling games for reasons like these? And would you like to see an Assassin's Creed set in the mid 1800s?
So, I think it's always difficult to say because I think a lot of the backlash that some of these games receive is uncalled for.
Like the Assassin's Creed Shadows one, I always found it strange.
Like there was a lot of people I think bandwagoning on the idea that Yasuke was a playable character and I don't know why to be honest."
"Yasuke is a character that has historical roots and Ubisoft games, the Assassin's Creed games aren't historically accurate.
They would just say they're based on works of fiction or based on historical works but they're fictional.
So, I always found that one weird but it is an interesting time to be looking at the wider political climate and the way things are shaping up."
"It's a very volatile time and setting a game like this in this time, I'm not going to say that it's wrong because it's not.
It leaves them open to a lot of unnecessary flack in the same way that they got recently with Assassin's Creed Shadows.
So, I can understand that at the end of the day, while you'd like to see the adventure and see what they cooked up, video games need to generate money and video games don't generate money if they're getting a lot of heat put on them by fans just because they don't like the ordeals they stand for."
"So, especially for a game like Assassin's Creed because it probably would have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make in total.
So, it's not exactly a small gamble. It's not like they put $30 million aside or something like that to make a smaller Assassin's Creed adventure and now they've gone, oh, we don't fancy that. This would be a huge gamble and I think that they're looking at it as a bit of a financial risk."
"More than a creative risk, it'd be more of a financial risk for Ubisoft as a company.
And as well, Ubisoft is not having the best of times as a company right now, not just because of the backlash it's been receiving from different things like that, but just because it's not as productive as it used to be and it's kind of reached a bit of a stale point."
"You've got games like Extafine, which received no backlash whatsoever and it was an absolute failure for them. It didn't make it a year.
So, I think you look at this and it's not great, but you have to also understand, I think, that this is a bit of a financial security thing that they're doing here.
Talking about the setting, I actually don't really care for the setting because we've already had something set around the same time."
"We had Assassin's Creed 3, which was set, I think it was the Civil War, wasn't it? So, it was the 1700s, sometime around then.
We had that adventure. I like to see Assassin's Creed go to different places and I think there's a lot of different territories they can explore that they haven't done already.
And I also would prefer them to stay as far away from the modern day as they can because Assassin's Creed is infinitely better when there's no guns."
"And 1860s, 1870s would mean a lot about that. You're almost getting into the point of a Wild West adventure. It's around that same sort of time period.
So, I would prefer, honestly, if they went somewhere completely different. Maybe they go to Africa. Obviously, they've done that with Egypt and stuff like that.
But, I mean, Central Africa and they explore millennia ago and they look at clans and different sort of tribes and whatnot."
"Or maybe they go to South America. They've never really done anything there. There's lots of options. I mean, there's loads of other areas they can go in Asia.
Even back to Europe. You know, you could go back and do a medieval one. We haven't had a medieval Assassin's Creed game in a long time.
So, again, there are a lot of options they can go to without needing to repeat themselves at such a familiar location and a recognisable time period."
"So, aside from the political difficulties it could cause, I just don't think that it's a very interesting time period to explore.
We've been there. We've done that. We've tread this ground. Let's go somewhere else and do something different.
You know, really push the boundaries and push the boat out with Assassin's Creed.
That's what's exciting about Codename Hexay, which, by the way, as well, is supposedly set in Salem around the witch trials."
"So, that's another North American game. I think around the 1600s the witch trials were in Salem.
So, you know, a lot of games set in North America in the last couple of centuries.
So, again, that's the thing I don't like about it per se. It's just the setting and the way they've set it up.
But, again, we'll see how this all shapes up. It basically means that we probably won't get a big Assassin's Creed game in 2027."
"Maybe they'll push Codename Hexay and they'll have 2026 as the Black Flag remake or whatever.
Who knows? But we'll stay tuned to hear more about that.
But, otherwise, let us know what you think about it in the comments below.
And, otherwise, I'll be back for the final GOTM News of the Week or my final GOTM News of the Week tomorrow."
