In surprising fashion, the marketing boss for Ubisoft has done his job by proclaiming that Assassin’s Creed will eventually be as big as the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Of course, he makes sure to point out that the franchise hasn’t reached that point just yet, but feels that in the near future it will be.
Speaking to Eurogamer, Murray Pannell discusses exactly how big he thinks Assassin’s Creed will be and admits that the team made mistakes with the original installment.
“But I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t get there at some point in the not-too-distant future. That’s about longevity and building decent products, properly marketed, and getting the name out there.
“I believe with the success of Assassin’s 2 we have now got an opportunity to position ourselves as one of the true triple-A blockbusters. Are we as big as things like GTA and Halo and things of that nature? Possibly not at this point. But I think we are uniquely poised now as a property, as a franchise, to certainly consider ourselves one of the must-have games whenever a game launches on Assassin’s Creed in the franchise.”
Throwing in franchise titles like Grand Theft Auto and Halo is a bold move when discussing the future popularity of your title. It’s no secret that both of those franchises sell at a ridiculously crazy rate and that ACII didn’t exactly compete in sales with either of them. However, it’s easy to see that the growing fan base being created around the Assassin’s universe is growing and could potentially reach those heights so long as the games continue to improve and entertain gamers.
So, how did Pannell feel the original title fared? He understands that it didn’t deliver at the level the marketing team may have pushed it, which furthered the disappointment factor a tad.
“It’s fair to say Assassin’s 1 promised a lot and slightly under-delivered in terms of gameplay. Assassin’s 2 promised even more and actually this time delivered on it. And I believe quality of the game will be a fundamental part of positioning ourselves in that blockbuster franchise space.”
Regardless, I’m very excited for Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood as I’m sure a lot of you are. Is the AC franchise turning into a day one buy for you or are you going to wait for a price drop?
Wait for a price drop? I have the Codex Edition ordered..
I can´t wait xD
lol really ?
I just cant see it garnering the widespread general public interest that GTA has. (yes a lot of that is to do with the court cases and bad press- but bad press is still press- when was the last time you read an article about assasins creed in a non gaming section of a proper news paper ? o right never)
well good for them to be so optimistic
but from what it looks like right now AC is gona end up like guitar hero in the futhure
Assassin’s Creed is overrated. I doubt it will reach the level of sales and acclaim as GTA.
Now that just seems stupid and sounds like they are trying to get a franchise to milk.
Never played the first one and the second bored me to tears. Even though GtA is in a decline for me personally I doubt AC will ever get to the point of say Vice City in the terms of “overtaking” the genre.
Assassins Creed is like GTA except in the late 1400’s. It’s a great game. AC2 and ACBrotherhood > GTA4 thats for sure so they have a good start. All they need to do is add a few more features like allowing citizen kills or flying, etc, and they could become the new GTA as far as popularity goes. They just added multiplayer. They’re going in the right direction.