We may never fully understand why Ubisoft decided to turn Assassin's Creed into an open-world RPG series starting with Origins, but we can try to understand it from the perspective of the developers who were with the studio at the time.
I had the chance to sit down with Alex Hutchinson, a Ubisoft veteran who directed Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 4, and he shared his unfiltered insights as someone who left the studio in 2017 months before the release of Origins.
"At the time there was a lot of pressure inside Ubisoft to 'keep the disc in the tray' to essentially try to delay resale as GameStop was the only one making any money on that transaction," Hutchinson said. "Designers were being asked to add play time which seemed like the most pro gamer solution to the problem in a franchise where multiplayer had never really worked."
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Hutchinson added that "action adventure games," which is what Assassin's Creed used to be, "are notoriously expensive per game hour, so the cheapest and most effective way to bulk it out was to add RPG elements."
To be clear, because I don't want to infer too much, Hutchinson never explicitly said this is the sole reason why Ubisoft took the Assassin's Creed series in a different direction, but he told me, as he has told others in the past, that the decision confounded him.
"I think it's the only franchise I can think of that changed genre and kept its audience, so it was risky but it seems to have worked. That said I always thought it was a peculiar decision for a franchise where they also wanted to put them out as close to annually as possible.
"I was worried that if you had 200 hours of AC you just played then would you really be in the mood for more a year later? I think luckily the radical change in setting and often protagonist means it feels more fresh than most franchises so they get away with it, but my heart is in the action adventure space, not stat juggling, so I miss the old days."
As someone who hasn't managed to fully complete an Assassin's Creed game since Syndicate, I'm definitely picking up what Hutchinson's putting down. And although newer, open world Assassin's Creed games are pretty much all well-received generally, I'd wager to guess we're not alone in yearning for more linear, stealth-focused Assassin's Creed games, even if Mirage didn't quite hit the mark for everyone.
Or, you know, Ubisoft could always make Assassin's Creed: Black Flag 2, if it cares enough about my opinion.
Otherwise, it's never a bad time to revisit the best Assassin's Creed games, which include a mix of RPGs and good ol' action adventures.
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