New Assassin's Creed game "not tied to AC2 DLC"

Ubi's confirmed to VG247 that the new Assassin's Creed game revealed in a financial report yesterday has nothing to do with planned Assassin's Creed II add-ons.

"The AC game referenced in [the] announcement is not tied to the AC2 DLC," said a rep.

Looking back at October 2009, members of the Assassin's Creed II team twice admitted that the storyline for the IP's third installment was being looked into, along with multiplayer.

Possible settings could be feudal Japan or medieval Europe, said Philippe Bergeron, lead mission designer at Ubisoft Montreal to German television show PLAY’D.

Admitting that both time periods were favorites of his, Bergeron felt that either "would be very interesting, culturally, [for the team] to discover and to make players discover as well”.

World War II was also mentioned as a setting by game producer Sébastien Puel, who fancied the idea of a female protagonist, thanks to the female-run economy of WWII-era France and England.

“We’ve had discussions on that very topic,” said Puel. “It could be really interesting but we’d need to find the right time period and place for that. We don’t want to just decide we want to change and have a female hero - as the first inspiration is always the time period."

By the 20th Century, there were loads of secret societies around the globe, so that would be a no-brainer as well.

While different setting were being thrown about by all involved, one thing was agreed upon - future replayability - and what better way to make a game replayable than the now-confirmed multiplayer?

During the October interview with Bergeron, PLAY'D asked him about the possibility of multiplayer, and he admitted that the team was looking into it.

"I mean, it’s unavoidable – multiplayer is now part of our industry and everybody needs to put their hands into it," he said. "So we’re definitely looking at possibilities of making Assassin’s Creed an online experience while still keeping with the strong narrative qualities.”

The new title in the series is expected to be shipped during Ubisoft's fiscal year 2010-11, which starts in April.