Ubisoft has reconfirmed that Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag won’t have multiplayer naval battles.
Previously, the game’s open-world pirate nature was cited as the main reason behind the non-inclusion. Now game director Ashraf Islamil says that the development team actually did attempt to implement multiplayer naval battles, but didn’t think they’d be able to get it “get it to a good enough level for this iteration.”
Islamil stated:
“Naval multiplayer, unfortunately, we don’t have it. It’s something we tried at the beginning, but we didn’t feel we can get it to a good enough level for this iteration.”
One Ubisoft brand that hasn’t been mentioned much as of late is Prince of Persia. Once one of the publisher’s top series, it’s now “in gestation” just like Ubisoft’s other franchises.
According to Ubisoft’s Europe boss Alain Corre:
“All our franchises are always in gestation. We are iterating. We are thinking about what can be done. But we can’t bring all the games and all the franchises every year. We have a lot on the show floor this year already. It will happen when we feel it is ready, when the creators have brought something interesting. That’s the case for all our franchises. They’re cooking. Some are cooking longer than others, but they’re cooking.”
No talk of Ubisoft would be complete without bringing up Beyond Good & Evil 2. There isn’t any important news to share, but Corre promised that the game “will happen when it will be perfect.”
“There are some works on it. There are some iterations on it. Now, some games are taking longer to be done, depending also on the creativity the creator can bring. You see the level of quality of the games today is very high. It takes time to find the right angle and message. It’s true that the trailer we showed years ago, in the desert with the pig sneezing and flies still resonates very well. These kind of brands are part of Ubisoft’s DNA. It will happen when it will be perfect.”
Batman: Arkham Origins could feature in-game connection to DC2 Multiverse digital comic
There’s a comic in the works for Batman: Arkham Origins, which will be produced by DC Comics. One noteworthy point is how the game could connect back to the comic.
Senior producer Ben Mattes told Polygon that the interactive comic will “definitely tie in narratively,” with the possibility of “something a little bit deeper” on the table.
“There [are] talks that are under way right now to see whether or not there’s an opportunity to do something a little bit deeper than that. It’s definitely on the radar, to see if we can put some interesting hooks in there, but we’ll see if we can get it done in time, really.”
Capcom’s handling of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies has been somewhat odd. Overseas, it will only be available as a digital download – at least for now. And in Japan, we’re hearing that Capcom is only planning a physical release – no download version is planned.
It doesn’t make much sense to me! Maybe a downloadable release will come to Japan in the future?
There’s a lot of Zelda on the horizon. Zelda: Wind Waker HD is hitting Wii U in October, followed by Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS in November.
Of course, fans are also looking forward to Zelda’s first original Wii U outing. Series producer Eiji Aonuma won’t say much about it, but he did discuss with Kotaku how Wind Waker HD is preparing Nintendo for the big project, and how it’s a” kind of testing ground”:
“Wind Waker HD is kind of a testing ground for us. With Wind Waker we were able to accomplish, for the first time, to create a seamless experience. You traveled a great sea… also [we are adding] the Miiverse communication of playing with others virtually. So we’re going to take things like this and add to those so the Wii U [new Zelda] experience should be one that is satisfying to players.”
Aonuma also confirmed that the Wind Waker HD will merge with the new Zelda Wii U team once the project is done. It will be a “super-team!”
Mushibugyo will be hitting Japan on September 19 for 5,980 yen. A demo will be coming to the World Hobby Fair on June 29 and June 30.
In Japan, Square Enix picked up a new trademark for “Occult Maiden”. Potentially more exciting is Star Ocean, which has been renewed by the company. Siliconera points out that Square Enix usually re-registers a trademark right before using it, so maybe some sort of Star Ocean announcement is on the way.
