"Assassin's Creed 3 is a franchise, like Mario or Resident Evil," says Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed 3 creative director Alex Hutchinson has defended Ubisoft's decision to release the IP annually, stating it's all part of the triple-A process.
Speaking with CVG at gamescom, Hutchinson said an annual release doesn't take anything away from the series, nor make it "less amazing."
"Since when is something less amazing if you get a new one every year?" he said. "If Breaking Bad was shown twice a week I'd watch it twice a week. If Radiohead put out an album every six months I'd gladly buy one every six months.
"If people want these massive triple-A blockbusters, people will have to accept that we have to make our money back somehow. It's rare that you'll make your money back on the first one. Assassin's Creed 3 is a huge undertaking - we went back to basics on a number of things, including tech. Any revenue that a publisher can get to make riskier projects is cool with me.
"People say it's the dark side of capitalism but it's more like communism; we have big projects whose success pay for the little projects."
Hutchinson said Assassin's Creed is no longer just a trilogy, but seen as a franchise by Ubisoft, and like other high-profile franchises, it will have its "ups and downs."
"We were reading reviews about Assassin's Creed Revelations and a few people were asking whether this was the end of the franchise, and we were thinking 'er slow down'," he said. "I mean, I'm no huge fan of Metacritic but the game got an eighty on there. That's not too bad really.
"The way we see Assassin's Creed 3 now is as a franchise, like Mario or Resident Evil, that will have its ups and downs. It wasn't the original plan to be an ongoing series, no, but it became the plan. The curse of success, for want of better phrase.
"But if you can keep a series interesting and fresh then I don't see why it shouldn't go on. Nintendo has been great at reinvigorating their franchises, as have other Japanese companies, so we feel we can too."
Assassin’s Creed 3 releases on October 30 in the US and October 31 in the EU for Wii U, 360 and PS3. A PC version follows at the end of November.