How Assassin's Creed Unity's Troubled Launch Impacts Future of the Series

Last year's Assassin's Creed Unity may have sold millions of copies, but its release was impacted by a barrage of bad press surrounding its technical troubles. Now, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has outlined how those issues will affect this year's Assassin's Creed game.

During an earnings call Thursday, Guillemot confirmed that this year's Assassin's Creed game, believed to be the Victorian-era London Assassin's Creed Victory, will use the same technology and engine that powered Unity. If you're thinking that will lead to even more problems, Guillemot doesn't agree.

"Those steps are sometimes painful, but they allow us to improve the overall quality of the brand" -- Guillemot

He explained that Ubisoft built a brand new engine for Unity, which was the first game in the series built specifically for current-generation consoles. This was no easy task. It caused headaches at Ubisoft, and, ultimately, it led to the spate of bugs that marred Unity's release.

"When you [build a new engine and tools], it's painful for all the group, and everything has to be recalibrated," Guillemot said. "And with [Unity], a few things were not perfect when the game was launched."

However, Guillemot said he has total confidence in his team at Ubisoft and the engine they created. While building a new engine obviously didn't go completely to plan, it was a necessary step to help the Assassin's Creed brand shine in the future, he explained.

"Those steps are sometimes painful, but they allow us to improve the overall quality of the brand," Guillemot said. "So we think this will help the brand in the long term."

"We are very confident that the experience earned and lessons learned on Unity, along with the customer feedback, will help us take Assassin's Creed to the next level of quality and innovation," he added.

Finally, Guillemot stressed that Ubisoft took Unity's rocky launch "very seriously" and said the publisher will always do everything it can do earn the trust and support of fans.

"At launch, the game had suffered from framerate issues and bugs which have had a strong resonance among the community," he said. "We are blessed to have such passionate and committed fans, and we will always strive to earn their trust and support. We took that situation very seriously, and our teams have been working relentlessly since launch and have provided constant and direct progress updates to our fans."

Are you looking forward to this year's Assassin's Creed game? Did the issues around Unity impact your thoughts about the brand overall? Let us know in the comments below!