Assassin’s Creed is borrowing heavily from the Prince’s moves, but it won’t replace the full-blown next-gen platformer that the developers at Ubisoft are already crafting. After the time-traveling trilogy played out in Sands of Time, Warrior Within and The Two Thrones, this new game won’t pick up where the Prince left off, but will be the beginning of an all-new saga.

A Ubisoft leak gave us concept art of the new game and the only details we have on this 360 and PS3 debut so far. However, after the last escapade (which featured an increasingly dark narrative and art style), it looks like the series has at least made a spiritual return to the franchise’s Middle Eastern roots. The Prince is now rocking an armored gauntlet which we reckon will have some magical power or perhaps enable the fixing of customizable weapons to his fist. Then there’s the new love interest: not much to say here, but she does look somewhere in the region of rather foxy.

So we know the game is in the works, but there’s also a film planned. Produced by money man Jerry Bruckenheimer, it’s not based on any particular game but draws on the franchise for inspiration, aiming to be a Pirates of the Caribbean spectacular, with slightly fewer gags.

What does this tell us? Well, as it’s in production at the moment, Ubi would be nuts to not bring out the new game in the same window, so expect a disappointingly late 2008 release (it’ll also let them get Assassin’s Creed out of the way first). And the lighter-hearted take on the Prince’s world in the film suggests that the game may very well mirror this too, a move we definitely welcome.