Ubisoft Q&A: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and the Power of a New Generation

Pirates rule the Caribbean and have established a lawless pirate republic. Among these outlaws is a young captain named Edward Kenway. Check out the Xbox Wire interview with “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s” Creative Director, Jean Guesdon from Ubisoft Montreal, and stay tuned for more news and insights from other renowned developers of the hottest and most anticipated games coming to Xbox.

What are you most excited about for developing on a new generation hardware?

For the moment we’re obviously really excited by the additional power we can work with. Graphically the difference is impressive and is already worth it!

But in the near future we’ll really tackle what these new hardware have to give. The connectivity tools, the more “open” infrastructure allowing developers to think about experiences that are not anymore confined to the TV and so much more. The difference won’t be on horsepower anymore but on real creativity.

How will a new generation of hardware impact/change/revolutionize the future of your title/gaming?

“Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” will look stunning on new generation hardware. You may think the difference will be small, but when you compile all that will change (better smoke, plants physic, ocean simulation, sails movements, incredible forts destruction.) You won’t doubt anymore.

Multiplayer for “Assassin’s Creed III” was well received by fans, what are your hopes for bringing the experience to “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag?”

Multiplayer is definitely a key part of the global offer an “Assassin’s Creed” game offers to players. And this year will make no exception. The introduction of the Gamelab will, for the very first time, allow players to generate modes and set of rules that will be playable by friends and the community. This should be a turning point for the franchise.

In a recent trailer, Ubisoft showcased the seamless transition of land-to-sea gameplay, will the entire world be available without load times and waiting?

The vast majority of the ground locations will be accessible without any loading indeed. That being said for some of them, mostly for technical reasons, we favored a small loading to make sure we secure the quality of these ground sections. In “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” we always prioritize first the quality of the overall experience rather that sticking to some rigid dogma.

Fans thoroughly enjoyed the added bonus of naval warfare in “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag,” will Ubisoft bring the experience of naval warfare to multiplayer?

Being players ourselves we obviously dreamed of bringing the naval experience to the multiplayer so we investigated the feasibility of it. And we realized that this thrilling challenge was putting …read more