Assassin's Creed 3 Creative Director Explains Why Ships Weren't Fully Realized Until Black Flag
Cover: Screenshot from Assassin's Creed III: Remastered
Naval adventures in the Assassin's Creed series began as early as Assassin’s Creed III, but Ubisoft had doubts about the "reliability of the technology." That's why the content ended up being limited.
"We weren't sure everything would work as it should, so we couldn't make it [the ships] a significant part of the main storyline,"
Fortunately, Ubisoft figured out the technological side fairly quickly, allowing ships to be fully realized in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The naval theme then continued in Assassin's Creed: Rogue and other series games (though to a lesser extent).
According to Hutchinson, development at that time followed the "old AAA game model." First, an alpha build was prepared, about two months before release, then a beta version, and finally, the final build—all in rapid succession. This allowed the creators to see the game "as a whole" more often. Hutchinson, who left the company in 2017, believes Ubisoft now has problems with this.
By the way, at one point, the creators of Assassin's Creed 3 even considered aiming for spaceships. But that's another story.
Hutchinson himself also believes that the beginning of the game turned out to be quite drawn-out.
It's worth noting that the future of Assassin's Creed is now in the hands of Vantage Studios—one of Ubisoft's five creative houses, which was opened together with Tencent. And the leaders appointed were no ordinary people, but franchise veterans.