Assassin's Creed Odyssey Has Series' Best First Week In Years

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is off to a flying start. The latest entry in Ubisoft's blockbuster franchise had the best launch week for the franchise on the current generation of consoles, the French publisher announced in a press release. That means the game had a better first-week performance than the first Assassin's Creed game released for PS4 and Xbox One, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), as well as all the follow-ups including Assassin's Creed Unity (2014), Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015), and Assassin's Creed Origins (2017).

Ubisoft did not share a specific first-week sales figure for Odyssey, but the company said the milestone includes internal estimates of game sales--digital and physical--as well as revenue from microtransactions (called "player recurring investment" in the press release). In other words, it doesn't necessarily mean Odyssey outsold the aforementioned games on a unit basis.

In a statement, Ubisoft marketing executive Geoffroy Sardin said the company is "humbled" by the reception to Odyssey from critics and fans alike. He added that launch is just the beginning for Odyssey, as Ubisoft plans to to release heaps of extra content in the coming year. As announced previously, there will be no new Assassin's Creed game in 2019, so this extra content seems to be all that fans will get for some time.

Odyssey was developed by Ubisoft Quebec with support from eight other Ubisoft studios around the world. The game set in Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War.

Regarding the extra content coming to Odyssey, Ubisoft is promising the "biggest and most ambitious" follow-on content in franchise history. This includes two new storylines, Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis, which each contain three instalments that will be released episodically. That content is paid, but Ubisoft is also offering a third storyline, The Lost Tales of Greece, to all players for free.

GameSpot's Assassin's Creed Odyssey review scored the game an 8/10.

"Assassin's Creed Odyssey's ambition is admirable, which is reflected in its rich attention to detail for the era and its approach to handling the multi-faceted narrative with strong protagonists at the lead," reviewer Alessandro Fillari said. "While its large-scale campaign--clocking in at over 50 hours--can occasionally be tiresome, and some features don't quite make the impact they should, Odyssey makes great strides in its massive and dynamic world, and it's a joy to venture out and leave your mark on its ever-changing setting."