Ubisoft is set to release the latest entry in its long running Assassin’s Creed series in a few months, and ahead of this has suggested future games will see a longer development time.
When Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches this November, it will have been in development for four years. This will mark the longest development period for the series to date, coming in at a year longer than that of previous series tentpole Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (which released in 2020).
However, according to Shadows’ lead producer Karl Onnée, four years is “the right balance to go from conception to production and get the feedback necessary to adapt” an Assassin’s Creed game.
“It’s great to work on a game that comes after something with the pedigree of Valhalla… but obviously there are great expectations,” Onnée told Eurogamer’s sister site GamesIndustry.biz. “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.”
This desire to keep making the series better than any given predecessor and the various iterations a game goes through is something the Assassin’s Creed developer said can’t be hurried. While Onnée appreciated there is – of course – a balance that needs to be struck between time and overall costs, he said the more time developers have, the “more you can iterate” on the end product. This is regardless of if the team is big or small.