Assassin's Creed Infinity leak: The clouded future of the AC franchise now that Ubisoft is turning it into a live service game

Ubisoft is apparently planning a live service online game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, according to a report by Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, and this new project is codenamed Assassin's Creed Infinity.

Bloomberg: Ubisoft is working on Assassin's Creed Infinity, a live-service platform- evolving platform with multiple settings- games are connected but feel/look different- inspired by Fortnite or GTA:O- Quebec and Montreal working together on thishttps://t.co/yckRcpb5y8 pic.twitter.com/azipeVSX6i

— Nibel (@Nibellion) July 7, 2021

As far as the recent installments of the Assassin’s Creed franchise go, each game had a specific historical setting. For example, Origins had ancient Egypt, Odyssey had ancient Greece, and Valhalla had 9th century Norway and England. On the contrary, Assassin’s Creed Infinity is set to encompass multiple settings with room to expand further.

According to people familiar with its development, Assassin’s Creed Infinity is Ubisoft’s attempt at creating a massive online platform that evolves over time. Schreier comments,

“The Assassin’s Creed Infinity project seeks to emulate the prolonged financial success of GTA V or Fortnite.”

What does Assassin’s Creed Infinity mean for the future of the AC franchise

According to many old time Assassin’s Creed fans, Ubisoft had already steered massively away from their prior vision for the AC franchise - which was mostly prevalent with the Ezio trilogy and, to some extent, with III, Black Flag, and Rogue.

One does not have to be an Assassin’s Creed purist to admit that the last three games of the AC franchise are grand open-world games with very little of what made their fabled predecessors stand out.

Now, with Ubisoft planning a live service model with Assassin’s Creed Infinity, there is surely a large possibility that the original AC formula will be diminished even further, with the addition of microtransactions and other parts and parcels of “games as a service.”

In case you're curious: Ubisoft didn't just scramble to get up a blog post about Assassin's Creed Infinity in the last hour. I've been talking to them about this story since last week

— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) July 7, 2021

With Take Two Interactive continuing to bank over a long period of time with GTA Online and Epic Games with Fortnite, it is not shocking that a large corporation like Ubisoft wants to replicate the model that seems to work in the current video game industry.

However, a project as ambitious as Assassin’s Creed Infinity is surely going to take a large share of developmental resources at Ubisoft. And with recent organizational changes following the toxic behavior-related scandal at Ubisoft, AC Infinity seems quite unlikely to contain a lot of passion from the developers. Schreier hinted at the same:

“And some employees, tired of working on massive productions, balked at the idea of Assassin’s Creed Infinity, which may be the most ambitious one yet.”