More Assassin's Creed confirmed for 2012

Ubisoft is barely a week away from releasing Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and already the studio has heralded the arrival of another sequel within the next year. Speaking to future projects during his 2012 first-half earnings call with company stakeholders, Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed the franchise would stick to its annual schedule with the development of a “full-fledged” Assassin's Creed entry in 2012, because it's always good to admit that your upcoming title isn't actually a full game.

"I have the pleasure to announce today that there will be another full-fledged Assassin's Creed title next year,” said Guillemot. “It will be another major release, and we will be communicating more about it in the coming months."

Considering Revelations is the third Assassin's Creed in as many years, it shouldn't really be all that surprising that the developer is prepping a another game to continue their yearly tradition. It also makes sense from a storyline perspective. Everything that's happened in the series so far has been in preparation for a massive, end-of-days 2012 event, so cramming in another game before the end of 2012 is sort of a given.

But then, from a development perspective, there's always the possibility that new ideas and true innovation will be sacrificed so that Ubisoft can meet its deadline. They pulled off the one-year development well with Brotherhood, and we're about to see if they can with Revelations, too, but four games in four years seems crazy. If Assassin's Creed: Revelations is truly the end of Ezio's story, is a year long enough to flesh out a whole new timeline?

This year's Assassin's Creed is due out for PS3, Xbox 360 on November 15, and later for PC on November 29.