The developers [Ubisoft Montreal] gather to provide a story overview for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

Check out the full quality trailer at GameTrailers.

Funny stuff, enjoy!

A substantially different version of Assassin’s Creed was once under development at Ubisoft Montreal, according to the game’s former art director.

Speaking to 1UP recently, Jonathan Jacques-Belletete (currently working on Deus Ex: Human Revolution at Eidos Montreal) reflected on the title, which was in development for both the PlayStation 2 and Xbox.

"It had a whole different story, with whole different environments and enemies and everything, and it was really cool," reflected Jacques-Belletete.

The title was being worked on by a smaller team inside of Ubisoft Montreal simultaneously with the current-generation version that was eventually released. It is unclear how far along development went or why the title was canceled, but if Jacques-Belletete’s reflections can be trusted, it was "awesome."  […]

Ubisoft has detailed its franchise plans for the future, with the intention of releasing new titles based on existing brands every 12 to 18 months.

Looking at Activision’s success with the yearly Call of Duty titles, the French publisher said it will be careful not to fatigue IP or compromise on quality.

"We’re organising ourselves towards that strategy – providing you can create something innovative every year that can surprise the end user and please your gamers," said European MD Alain Corre, in an interview published today. "Then you can consider releasing a SKU every 12-18 months – but it needs to be different enough from the previous SKU to make sure you’re not tiring the franchise or the consumers.

"The Call of Duty example is the best around – they’ve been able over the past five years to iterate every year with growing success each time. They never compromise on quality, which is exactly what we’re trying to do with our brands now."

The next 12 months sees the return of a number of high-profile Ubisoft franchises – the next Assassin’s Creed game will hit within a year of the last release, and use many of the same assets as Assassin’s Creed II. But brands such as Ghost Recon and Prince of Persia have been away from stores for longer, and Ubisoft may face challenges when it comes to quality of product within a short time-frame – Splinter Cell: Conviction, which was under development as far back as 2006, has been delayed numerous times. […]

Read the rest on GameIndustry.biz…

[…] the publisher is shoring up its focus on competitive AAA core titles on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 — and that means it plans to launch a third Assassin’s Creed game in its next fiscal year.
Ubisoft’s fiscal 2010 begins in April and ends in March 2011, and in a statement today alongside its reduced quarterly and annual forecast, the company said the fiscal year to come "will see a greater number of franchise releases than fiscal year 2009-10."

This includes the mentioned Assassin’s Creed release — which the company confirmed to Gamasutra refers specifically to an entirely new game and not the planned DLC content associated with AC2. It also includes delayed Splinter Cell: Conviction, which was moved from February 23, 2010 to April, but a new Ghost Recon series game and the recently-announced Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Other titles the publisher lists for its fiscal 2010-11 include Raving Rabbids 4 and Driver.

The fiscal year 2010-11 line-up will be more focused on the Xbox 360 and Playstation, the consoles which are expected to experience sustained sales growth in games for gamers in calendar 2010," says Ubisoft. "Other new franchises and innovations will also be announced throughout the year." […]

Read the rest at Gamasutra.

La BD Assassin’s Creed : 1. Desmond, inspirée du jeu vidéo d’Ubisoft, est désormais disponible sur iPhone et iPod Touch. Ubisoft a fondé sa maison d’édition de bandes dessinées, Les Deux royaumes, en 2009 et choisi Ave !Comics pour l’adaptation sur mobiles de son premier album publié.

Ave !Comics a imaginé une solution innovante pour la lecture sur mobiles, une solution qui plonge le lecteur dans chaque case. Grâce à un parcours dans la page, entre animation et lecture, le lecteur est immergé dans le royaume d’Assasin’s Creed, à travers les siècles, au fil de ses lignées d’assassins.

L’application BD Assassin’s Creed : 1. Desmond pour iPhone est comme un coffre empli de trésors. En plus de la bande dessinée, l’application offre aussi de nombreux bonus : trailer vidéo, croquis, interviews et biographies des auteurs.

[…]

Straight out of Ubisoft’s Q308 earnings call comes news that Assassin’s Creed 2 – the not-so-secret sequel to the 6 million plus selling megahit – will be silently leaping onto consoles "by March 2010" according to the Twitter feed of gaming gournalist Geoff Keighley Ubisoft’s third quarter earnings report.

Ubi’s forecasting for its 2009 fiscal year – running from April 2009 through March 2010 – takes "into account … 7 franchise titles" including Assassin’s Creed 2, the mysterious (still Xbox exclusive?) Splinter Cell Conviction, and Ghost Recon. Some quick finger-based math tells us that leaves four unannounced "franchise titles." Beyond Good and Evil 2, maybe? Red Steel 2, perhaps? Throw us a bone here!

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During its first-half fiscal 2008-09 conference call today, Ubisoft parried a question regarding the Assassin’s Creed sequel. While an Ubisoft executive would not confirm the game’s release for fiscal 2010 (more specifically, holiday 2009), le exec did concede that “we are working hard on the product” — the first real confirmation of its assumed development.

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