Assassin's Creed 3 is going to be setting more than a few key milestones for Ubisoft, with the publisher hoping that overall sales is one of them. With a politically-charged story line, a minority protagonist, the first cooperative game modes and more, fans are in for a a larger treat than they're used to.

Now, it seems that the overall size of Assassin's Creed 3's campaign and multiplayer can be estimated, and is too big for a single disc.

Before people start expecting that the campaign or game world will be explicitly similar to Skyrim or Mass Effect 3, the developers claim that the split may have as much to do with Assassin's Creed 3's multiplayer as its singleplayer. Philippe Bergeron, the game's Mission Director explained to NZGamer that the aging Xbox 360's hardware means that developers are needing to adjust their delivery systems. Xbox 360 still utilizes standard DVD technology for their discs, as opposed to the PS3's Blu-ray.

That's not too big an issue to fix, but did necessitate a separation of assets:

"This time around, we're cracking at the seams. We have two disks on Xbox."

It seems that both the online components of AC3 and the singleplayer have received enough respective upgrades and expansions to warrant a standalone disc each. Not particularly surprising, given the apparent horsepower of Ubisoft's new AnvilNext Engine. Whatever the specific reasons, the admissions is undeniably good news. Not just because it reinforces the large promises made about Connor's new animations and combat mechanics, or the larger game worlds, but for the multiplayer as well.

Ubisoft's take on multiplayer was a form of online play that surprised many at first, but turned out to be a welcome change of pace to the prevalent death match and capture the flag's of the world. For AC3, the team has set their sights on the 'Horde Mode' style of gameplay, teaming human players against waves of NPCs - albeit with a clear Assassin's Creed twist - in the new 'Wolf Pack' mode. How well the franchise meshes with the play style remains to be seen, but obviously the developers are giving themselves enough space to make it worthwhile.

Some may still have doubts that Ubisoft will do justice to the size and scope of American Revolutionary battles, but at least they've got the elbow room to pull it off. And we'd assume that the potential seen with AC3's naval battles more than accounts for a large portion of real estate.

Think this is a good sign of what's to come, or merely a symptom of aging consoles?

Assassin’s Creed 3 will be released for the PS3 and Xbox 360 on October 30, 2012. A PC release is scheduled for November 20, with a Wii U version on November 18.

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Source: NZGamer