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Assassin’s Creed Infinity: release date speculation, gameplay, and more

Mike Colucci
By

The Assassin’s Creed franchise has become an integral part of video game culture. With 12 major titles under their belt, Ubisoft Montreal and Quebec have been expanding the ever-so-secret society of Assassins on a relatively yearly basis. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla was the biggest game yet, with over 100 hours of content between the base game and current DLCs, but Ubisoft is dreaming even bigger.

Assassin’s Creed Infinity is starting to sound like the biggest game of all time, but news on the front has taken a backseat as of late. Ubisoft seems more focused on Skull and Bones, due out November 8, 2022.  That said, here’s everything we know about Assassin’s Creed Infinity, including release date, gameplay, multiplayer, and more.

Release date

Eivor blowing her raid horn in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.

Don’t mark your calendars anytime soon. Ubisoft has only confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Infinity is in the development stages. We don’t have an established release date, nor will we have one any time soon. Ubisoft’s energy remains on Skull and Bones as they prepare for the November release.

In an official blog post, Ubisoft refers to Assassin’s Creed Infinity as:

“… a collaborative, cross-studio structure between Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Quebec…will define the overall future of Assassin’s Creed [including] an important upcoming, early-in-development project codenamed Assassin’s Creed Infinity.”

Codenamed? Is that to say Infinity won’t be the official title? We’ll have to wait and see.

Let’s also take a look at Ubisoft’s release schedule concerning recent Assassin’s Creed games. Between 2009 and 2015, Ubisoft released a brand new Assassin’s Creed title following the same basic formula. But players felt like the franchise lost itself between Rouge and Syndicate, having just come off the heels of what some considered the best Assassin’s Creed game yet: Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag.

Ubisoft then took a two-year break between Syndicate and Assassin’s Creed: Origins but didn’t find the niche again until Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey. It would be another two years until Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla hit the shelves in 2020 and blew the doors off the franchise. What does all this mean? Ubisoft learned the value of patience. Sorry fans, we probably won’t be seeing Assassin’s Creed Infinity until 2023, possibly 2024.

According to Bloomberg, Ubisoft has a smaller Assasin’s Creed penned for late 2022 or early 2023. In this game, codenamed Assassin’s Creed Rift, players explore a more stealth-focused world as Basim, a popular Valhalla character.

Platforms

Assassin's Creed Valhalla viking ship and land fighting.

Hopefully, by 2023, players looking for a current-generation PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S will have found one. There’s absolutely no reason to believe Assassin’s Creed Infinity will release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If Ubisoft can accomplish what they’ve set out to do, old-gen consoles won’t be able to handle it.

Of course, PC players never have to worry, as the power of a well-built gaming computer can handle whatever Ubisoft throws at it. Players across all consoles will be 99.99% able to enjoy the next Assassin’s Creed game. It would be company suicide to partner exclusively with Microsoft or Sony.

Trailers

Assassin’s Creed fans will have to stick to Valhalla DLC trailers for now. Without an established release date or setting, there’s no reason to think an Assassin’s Creed Infinity trailer, even a teaser, is coming any time soon.

Gameplay

High vantage point view of the city in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

What we do know about Assassin’s Creed Infinity is Ubisoft’s plan to create the next big live-service game. Titles like Fornite and Grand Theft Auto V have been updating and changing their game for years now. GTA 5 came out in 2013! You could have played it on Xbox 360 — let that one sink in for a moment.

So, what does “live service” mean? Games like Fortnite, Destiny 2, and even Overwatch figured out that you don’t need to keep releasing sequels and follow-ups to make money. Instead, you just have to change, update, and freshen up the game your fans fell in love with. GTA, Fortnite, and Overwatch reign as the live-service kings, while Call of Duty: Warzone looks like it’ll be creeping up pretty soon. The free-to-play live-service games like Fornite, Apex Legends, and Warzone have clearly found their niche.

Assassin’s Creed Infinity plans to expand the story through different periods, settings, and characters. In Valhalla, players still control Eivor as they embark on these massive expansions. If Infinity plans on visiting different periods and settings, they’ll have to create several protagonists for players to control. That, or send a combat-savvy modern-day descendant back in time with an Abstergo time machine.

Multiplayer

An assassin jumps in the air and is about to kill another player.

Multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed games only existed for a short period between Brotherhood and Black Flag. Assassin’s Creed: Unity did away with the PvP style of old and introduced a co-op multiplayer mode that only lasted one game. Since Unity, we’ve not gotten much for multiplayer in Assassin’s Creed games other than player screenshots and Valhalla‘s recruitment mechanic.

Live-service games live and breathe off multiplayer. Ubisoft has a tough decision to make regarding Assassin’s Creed Infinity — stick to their guns and focus on single-player stories or reshape the formula and focus on multiplayer and co-op?

DLC

Player holding Excalibur in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

As a live-service game, Assassin’s Creed Infinity will ideally have multiple years of DLC planned post-launch, with even more plans two or three years down the road. Will Infinity meet the bar set by GTA V? We’ll have to wait and see.

Pre-order

Petra and Eivor from Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

There is no way to pre-order Assassin’s Creed Infinity yet, but we can safely assume there will be pre-orders available in the future. The best you can do is set aside $60 to $100 in an envelope labeled “Assassin’s Creed Infinity Fund.”

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