In an accompanying blog post at their community blog, some team members explained that they never expected the game to become the monster franchise it turned into. “We never expected AC to be such a success,” Executive Producer Sebastian Puel said. “We were passionate about history, but not sure it could have a mainstream wide appeal. I remember of the programmers referring to a cool game feature and saying, ‘With this one, we will sell one million copies!’ We are well past 100 million today.”
Still, the crew at Ubisoft could tell they were onto something unique with the first game. “We could feel that AC was ‘special,’” recalled Creative Director Jean Guesdon. “Of course, nobody could have predicted that, ten years later, our universe would have become what it is now.”
The documentary also highlights several people who started out as dedicated fans of the game and later became part of the team creating it. From cosplayers to parkour artists to college history professors, the Assassin’s Creed fanbase is like no other.
The very first Assassin’s Creed installment was released in 2007, with a storyline featuring two factions that have been battling for centuries and a device that allowed you to access genetic memories and replay events that had occurred hundreds of years ago. Now it’s up to ten entries in the main series, with several spin-offs for other platforms, featuring locations all over the world and time periods from every era. The franchise has spawned dozens of comics, novels, fan films, and even a 2016 big-budget movie, which had a rather tumultuous production history and was not well-received by fans.
The latest entry, after a two-year hiatus, is an open-world adventure set in ancient Egypt. It’s scheduled for release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on October 27, 2017.
