Assassin's Creed Valhalla is the most recent addition in Ubisoft's franchise and is now one of the most successful eight months after release. In fact, Assassin's Creed Valhalla managed to surpass not one but two franchise sales records within its first week. To say that Ubisoft would be impressed is an understatement, and it would appear that despite some backlash about Valhalla being too large and long, Ubisoft is seemingly heading towards making another huge Assassin's Creed game.
According to a leak from industry veteran Jason Schreier, Ubisoft plans on making the next addition to the franchise even bigger than Valhalla. Additionally, Schreier heard that Ubisoft Sofia's Assassin's Creed game would be morphed into a Valhalla DLC, which could be the unveiled third DLC planned for AC Valhalla's post-launch content.
Schreier also said that the next Assassin's Creed game is still far away from release, which would make sense considering Valhalla is still early into its life cycle. The franchise saw an overhaul with Assassin's Creed Origins, which had introduced RPG elements, focusing on larger open world designs and less on the assassin aspect. Regardless, while the change created some divisiveness within the fanbase, Ubisoft will continue on the path of the RPG formula, as well as games focusing on quantity.
However, from a business standpoint, it makes perfect sense that Ubisoft would continue down this path. Since the release of AC Origins, the developer has consistently seen impressive results, both critically and commercially. For instance, Assassin's Creed Odyssey was the first time the franchise ever received a Game of the Year nomination at the Game Awards. That's a huge achievement being that Odyssey sat alongside impressive games such as God of War and Marvel's Spider-Man.
Nevertheless, the news of an even larger Assassin's Creed could potentially push players away, being that a sense of fatigue is beginning to kick in. Players were initially hoping Valhalla would be smaller than Odyssey, and while the map is not as big, the story for Valhalla was much longer. Regardless, Ubisoft could test the waters for a free-to-play Assassin's Creed game that could focus on a more linear story that follows a similar structure to the original games. Nevertheless, while all of this does come from a reliable source, it's important to remember that nothing has been officially confirmed. For now, fans can look forward to Valhalla's post-launch content, which is set to be the largest in the franchise.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is available right now for Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Triple Click Podcast (via Resetera)