Assassin’s Creed is taking a sabbatical this year, but Ubisoft is already working on the next title – we learned a few things about it, whether it comes in 2017 or 2018.

French LeMonde has made an interview Serge Hescoët, and it was translated on the NeoGAF forums. His name might not be familiar, but he has been working at Ubisoft for almost two decades. He’s been the chief creative officer for about 15 years.

The translation says „Ubisoft would traditionally make open world games where they had a specific pre-laid narrative/cinematic experience in mind that the player would then go through. Think Assassin’s Creed 2 where you’re sent through a series of hub cities and hit the same plot points and set piece as everyone else, and even though you had options, your core experience would be pretty similar. Ubisoft notes that the first game that will showcase this new approach to open world game design is the next Assassin’s Creed title.”

There will still be dialog and cutscenes, but they will be more localized (e.g.,. based on our location), and depending on what the player does currently. As Hascoët says, „We’re putting less narrative in our games, and instead focusing on player stories, believable worlds, and emergent character interaction. We want games with things players want to share, and to allow them to play their way. We’re doing this because of both ourselves and market trends.”

Ubisoft already began implementing this change a bit in Watch Dogs 2 – the game is decent, but sadly, the online didn’t work in the first few days after the launch.