Question: When was the first Assassin's Creed released?

Assassin's Creed

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Assassin's Creed is an action-adventure stealth video game franchise created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond and Corey May, developed and published by Ubisoft using the game engine Anvil Next. It depicts in the centuries-old struggle, now and then, between the Assassins, who fight for peace with free will, and the Templars, who desire peace through control. The series features historical fiction, science fiction and characters, intertwined with real-world historical events and figures. For the majority of time players would control an Assassin in the past history, while they also play as Desmond Miles or an Assassin Initiate in the present day, who hunt down their Templar targets.
The video game series took inspiration from the novel Alamut by the Slovenian writer Vladimir Bartol,[1] while building upon concepts from the Prince of Persia series.[2] It begins with the self-titled game in 2007, and has featured eleven main games. The most recent released game is 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
A new story and time period are introduced in each entry, and gameplay elements evolve from the previous one. There are three story arcs in the series. For the first five main games, the framing story is set in 2012 and features series protagonist Desmond Miles who uses a machine called the Animus and relives the memories of his ancestors to find a way to avert the 2012 apocalypse. In games till Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Abstergo employees and Assassin initiates recorded genetic memories using the Helix software, helping the Templars and Assassins find new Pieces of Eden in the modern world. The latest two games, Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey follow ex-Abstergo employee Layla Hassan as she is recruited into the Assassin's Creed.
Main games of Assassin's Creed are set in an open world and presented from the third-person perspective where the protagonists take down targets using their combat and stealth skills with the exploitation of the environment. Freedom of exploration is given to the player the historical settings to finish main and side quests. Apart from single-player missions, some games also provide competitive and cooperative multiplayer gameplay. While main games are produced for major consoles and desktop platforms, multiple spin-off games were also released in accompany for consoles, mobiles, and handhelds platforms.
The main games in the Assassin's Creed video game series have received generally positive reviews for their ambition in visuals, game design, and narratives, with criticism towards the yearly release cycle and frequent bugs. The spin-off games received mixed to positive reviews. The video game series has received multiple awards and nominations, including Game of the Year awards. It is also commercially successful, selling over 100 million copies as of September2016, becoming Ubisoft's best-selling franchise and one of the highest selling video game franchises of all time. Assassin's Creed was adapted by its self-titled film, which received negative reviews. A book series of art books, encyclopedias, comics, novelizations, and novels is also published. All of the media take place within the same continuity as the main video game series.

History

The Assassin's Creed series originated out of ideas for a sequel for Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a full 3D adaption of the original Prince of Persia games, which was made for the sixth generation and included a number of parkour moves and combat. The Sands of Time was a critical and financial success, leading Ubisoft to request Ubisoft Montreal to develop a sequel, aiming for the next console generation. The Ubisoft Montreal team decided on taking the gameplay from The Sands of Time into a open world approach, taking advantage of the improved processing power to render larger spaces and crowds. Narratively, the team wanted to move away from the Prince simply being someone next in line for the throne but to have to work for it; combined with research into secret societies led them to focus on the Assassins, heavily borrowing from the novel Alamut.[3]
They developed a narrative where the player would control an Assassin that served as a bodyguard for a non-playable Prince, leading them to call this game Prince of Persia: Assassin. Ubisoft was not happy with a Prince of Persia game without the Prince as the playable character, but this led to the marketing division to suggest the name Assassin's Creed, playing off the creed of the Assassins, "nothing is true; everything is permitted". Ubisoft Montreal ran with this in creating a wholly new intellectual property, eliminating the Prince and creating the conflict between the Assassins and Templar Knights. Further, in postulating what other assassinations they could account for throughout human history, they came onto the idea of genetic memory and created the "Animus" device and modern storyline elements, which further allowed them to explain certain facets of gameplay, such as accounting when the player fails a mission, in the same way they had done in The Sands of Time.[3]
Following release of the first Assassin's Creed in 2007, Ubisoft Montreal and other Ubisoft studios use the series to present games from various historical periods, striving for historical accuracy while conceding some elements for gameplay.[3]
Premise
The Assassin's Creed games primarily revolve around the rivalry between two ancient secret societies — the Assassins and the Knights Templar — and their indirect relation to an ancient species pre-dating humanity, referred to within the games as "those who came before", whose society, along with much of Earth's biosphere, was destroyed by a massive solar storm thousands of years before the games. The games' real-world chronological setting begins in the year 2012, but most of the gameplay is in historical settings.
Within the franchise, Abstergo Industries is a mega-corporation conglomerate with multiple branches, secretly run by modern Knights Templar. The company is the present-day main antagonist of the franchise. Abstergo secretly created the "Animus", a device that allows its users to "re-live" and experience the memories of their genetic ancestors within their bloodline through a virtual simulation. Overexposure to the animus causes the "bleeding effect", which results in giving the user skills and abilities of his ancestors, but is also dangerous for the user as it can damage their mind, causing symptoms such as dementia, insanity, dissociative identity disorder or brain damage. Abstergo is seeking to discover the location of several historical artifacts, known as the "Pieces of Eden". Such artifacts hold great power, and are capable of controlling free will. Abstergo seeks to use them to remove free will and bring humanity into one single unified group, while the Assassins oppose them. In order to find the Pieces of Eden, Abstergo is abducting people whose ancestors are suspected to have had historically confirmed or suspected interactions with such devices, forcing the kidnapped person into the Animus and searching for clues on their ancestors' memories within the Animus.
Protagonists

Desmond Miles is a bartender who is a descendant of several lines of prominent Assassins; though raised as an Assassin, he left his nomadic family to seek out a more common lifestyle. He is initially kidnapped by Abstergo, which is aware of his ancestral lineage. Desmond is forced into the Animus and is revealed to be subject 17; many of the sixteen previous subjects died as a result of Animus over-exposure.
Desmond is later rescued by a small team of modern-day Assassins and agrees to work with them, continuing to experience the memories of his ancestors to discover the locations of additional Pieces of Eden so they can be recovered before Abstergo can do so. From the bleeding effect, Desmond gains some of the Assassin skills of his predecessors at the cost of living with multiple sets of memories and personalities in his mind.
Within the Animus, Desmond explores the memories of a number of Assassins, including Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, an initially disgraced Assassin working to redeem himself during the Third Crusade; Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Assassin in Italy during the late 15th and early 16th centuries of the Italian Renaissance; and Ratonhnhaké:ton, otherwise known as Connor, a half-Mohawk, half-British Assassin during the American Revolution.
Throughout these events, Desmond learns of allusions to the prophetic end of the world in 2012 from a former Animus test subject, Subject 16; the event turns out to be a repeat of the disaster which wiped out the ancient civilization, and he finds out that his memories hold the key to Earth's surviving a second solar storm. During his experiences, Desmond is aided by holographic projections of three of the ancient race's rulers: Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno.
After Desmond dies to ensure Earth's survival, his memories, which have survived through genetic samples of his DNA,[4] are accessed by Abstergo, which hires a new subject to enter the Animus. The new subject relives the memories of Edward Kenway (grandfather of Ratohnhaké:ton, otherwise known as Connor Kenway), a privateer-turned-pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy.[5]
Gameplay
While the games are often presented through protagonist Desmond Miles, the bulk of the game is played as Desmond experiences the memories of his ancestors through an advanced device called the Animus. This provides a means of a diegetic interface, showing Desmond's ancestor's health, equipment, goals, and other features as part of the Animus interface. The Animus is based on the player controlling the assassin to maintain the synchronization between Desmond and his ancestor's memories. Performing actions that go against the Assassin's way or dying breaks the synchronization, effectively requiring the player to restart at a previous checkpoint. Furthermore, the player cannot explore outside areas that the assassin has not experienced yet. There are also abnormalities within the Animus from previous users of the device.
While playing as the Assassin characters, the games are generally presented from a third-person perspective in an open world environment, focusing on stealth and parkour. The games use a mission structure to follow the main story, generally assigning the player to complete an assassination of public figureheads or a covert mission. Alternatively, several side missions are available, such as mapping out the expansive cities from a high perch followed by performing a "leap of faith" into a haystack below, collecting treasures hidden across the cities, exploring ruins for relics, building a brotherhood of assassins to perform other tasks, or funding the rebuilding of a city through purchasing and upgrading of shops and other features. At times, the player is in direct control of Desmond, who by nature of the Animus use has learned Assassin techniques through the bleeding effect, as well as their genetic ability of Eagle Vision, which separates friend, foe and assassination targets by illuminating people in different colors. Through the Animus interface, the player can go back to retry any past mission already completed; for example, in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the player achieves better synchronization results by performing the mission in a specific manner such as by only killing the mission's target.
The games use the concept of "active" versus "passive" moves, with "active" moves, such as running, climbing the sides of buildings, or jumping between rooftops, more likely to alert the attention of nearby guards. When the guards become alerted, the player must either fight them or break their line of sight and locate a hiding place, such as a haystack or a well, and wait until the guards' alert is reduced. The combat system allows for a number of unique weapons, armor, and moves, including the use of a hidden blade set in a bracer on the Assassin's arm, and which also can be used to quietly assassinate targets.
Release history

Notes

Main series
Assassin's Creed

Desmond Miles is captured by Abstergo and forced to use a machine called the Animus to explore Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad's memories during the time of the Third Crusade. Desmond begins to witness events after Altaïr breaks all three tenets of the Assassin Brotherhood while attempting to stop Robert de Sablé from taking a Piece of Eden. Al Mualim, the Brotherhood's leader, demotes Altaïr to Novice and tasks him with assassinating the nine Knights Templars, including de Sablé, to regain his former status. Altaïr's quest eventually leads him to face de Sablé in the presence of King Richard I of England warning the King of de Sablé's plot to kill him. Altaïr defeats de Sablé, but with his last words, de Sablé reveals that there were ten Templars, the last being Al Mualim, who now holds the Piece of Eden. Altaïr returns to face Al Mualim and struggles to fight through illusions created by the Piece, but eventually kills Al Mualim. When Altaïr recovers the piece, he and those watching the Animus view a holographic map showing where other artifacts are located across the globe. Desmond is pulled from the Animus, and was going to be killed, but his life is spared by Lucy Stillman, an Assassin working as a mole within Abstergo, as she claims they might need to further examine his memories later. He comes to learn that a former test subject had left messages only Desmond can see, foretelling the end of the world in 2012.
The first Assassin's Creed introduced core elements that remained  in the rest of the game series. The game creates fictionalized, historical versions of Masyaf (the Brotherhood's location), Jerusalem, Acre and Damascus, and incorporates a number of documented historical figures into the story. Other core elements include the virtualized Animus system, free running, climbing, stealth, parkour, and the initial formulation of the combat system. The game requires the player to complete a number of side quests before they are able to obtain an assassin quest from a local Brotherhood guidemaster in each city, but this side quest prerequisite was abandoned in future games.
Assassin's Creed II

Lucy returns and breaks Desmond out of Abstergo, taking him to an Assassin safehouse to work alongside Shaun, a historian, and Rebecca, their technical support. Using an improved version of the Animus, Desmond takes witness to Ezio Auditore da Firenze, a young nobleman from the late 15th century in Florence, shortly before the execution of Ezio's father and brothers by order of a corrupt official working for the Templars. He, his mother, and sister take to hiding at the Monteriggioni villa owned by his uncle Mario, who helps to train Ezio in the ways of an Assassin. Ezio and Mario discover that Rodrigo Borgia is the figurehead of a number of Templars all who were accomplices in the execution of his family, and with help of allies like Leonardo da Vinci, methodically assassinate the lower-ranked Templars, while learning that Borgia has acquired a Piece of Eden called the Apple. Eventually, Ezio corners Borgia, who hands over the Piece and flees; Ezio is inducted into the ranks of the Brotherhood and believed to be a prophet based on their codex. A decade later, the Brotherhood learns that Borgia has since become Pope Alexander VI, using the Church's influence to strengthen the Templars. Ezio invades Vatican City and confronts Borgia, discovering that the Papal staff is also a Piece of Eden. Defeating Borgia but sparing his life, Ezio uses both the Apple and the Papal staff to reveal a chamber of ancient technology. Inside, he is addressed by a hologram of a humanoid female that calls herself Minerva who speaks directly to Desmond through Ezio. Minerva explains how her society had pre-dated humanity's, but a great disaster nearly wiped them out, and warns that another event is due to occur soon, putting the fate of humanity in Desmond's hands. Upon this discovery, Desmond and his allies find the safehouse has been compromised by Abstergo and flee.
Similar to the first game, Assassin's Creed II takes place in historical recreations of Venice, Florence, Forlì, San Gimignano, and the Tuscan countryside, and incorporates events during that period as part of the story. Missions are divided into main story missions, themselves divided into memory sequences reflecting points in Ezio's life, and side missions which can be accomplished at any time; this approach to mission structure remains consistent in the other games in the series. The Monteriggioni villa provides several functions which can be expanded on by paying money for upgrades of surrounding buildings, or by purchasing artwork, weapons, and armor for the villa; in turn, the villa will generate wealth for the player at a rate influenced by the upgrades and acquisition of these items. Additional quests involve locating secret Assassin seals, and finding hidden marks left by "Subject 16", a former Animus user, that hint at the nature of Minerva's society.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Desmond and his allies retreat to the ruins of the Monteriggioni villa, and Desmond reenters the Animus to continue Ezio's memories, specifically to identify the location of the Apple. After facing Rodrigo Borgia, Ezio returned to Monteriggioni, but the villa is soon attacked by forces under the command of Cesare Borgia, Rodrigo's son. Mario is killed and the Apple is stolen. Ezio vows revenge by helping to free the people of Rome from the Borgia family. As Ezio works covertly to turn the city against the Borgias, he gains followers that want to join his cause, and Ezio trains them in the way of the Assassins. In an attempt to assassinate Cesare and Rodrigo at the Castel Sant'Angelo, Ezio instead witnesses Cesare forcing his father to eat a poisoned apple that Rodrigo had prepared to kill his son. Ezio chases down Cesare and eventually captures him and recovers the Apple. Cesare is taken to prison in Viana, Spain but manages to escape with help of his allies. The Assassins lead the fight against Cesare and the remaining loyal Borgia troops, and eventually Ezio throws Cesare from the castle walls, killing him. With no perceived further threats, Ezio takes to hide the Apple under the Colosseum. In the present, Desmond is able to navigate through the underground chambers beneath the Colosseum to locate the Apple. As he picks it up, Desmond is witness to another hologram figure, calling herself Juno, and who controls Desmond to stab Lucy (because Lucy has defected to the Templars) before he falls into a coma.
Brotherhood shares many of the same features as the previous game though it takes place primarily in Rome. Similar to the villa, the player is able to spend money to buy and upgrade shops and other facilities throughout the city as to increase revenue they can collect from it; however, the player will be required to destroy Borgia towers that control various sections of the city before they can do so.  The Brotherhood of Assassins is introduced, by which, after saving citizens from certain events, the player can invite these citizens as Assassins; they can then be dispatched to remote locations across Europe to gain experience and money, or can be called in to help the player directly in a mission. For the first time in the series, the game features online multiplayer. Players play as Abstergo employees, who, through the use of the Animus, take on the genetic memories of Renaissance Templars in various game modes.[6] It was the last game to feature Assassin's Creed creator Patrice Désilets, as the creative director of the series.[7][8]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations

Within the computerized "core" of the Animus, Subject 16 (Clay Kaczmarek) explains to a comatose Desmond that his mind must achieve full synchronization with Altaïr and Ezio, or he will fall into dementia. Desmond sees Ezio's memories, years after Brotherhood, Ezio researches the Assassins' history and travels to Masyaf to locate Altaïr's library, rumored to hold great power within. The Templars also seek to open this library, but it is locked by five keys, hidden in the Ottoman-held Constantinople. Ezio finds the city in a feud  between brothers Selim and Ahmet vying for the Sultanate. Ezio is aided by Sofia Sartor; the two fall in love. Eventually, Ahmet reveals himself to be a Templar, and is killed by Selim after he battles with Ezio. Ezio uses the keys to witness Altaïr's memories before and after Al Mualim's death, which show the death of Altaïr's wife and youngest son in the midst of a coup d'etat within the Assassins. Altair exiles himself for twenty years, eventually returning to Masyaf to kill the usurper and retake control. Altaïr inscribes his memories in the keys and asks his friend Niccolò Polo to hide them. Afterwards, Ezio and Sofia go to Masyaf and open the library to find Altaïr's corpse and a Piece of Eden. Ezio leaves it and his assassin tools, and tells Desmond, understanding now of his role as a messenger to him. A holographic being calling himself Jupiter explains to Desmond (through Ezio) how his society perished as a result of a massive solar flare apocalypse, and that the key to stop the 2012 solar flare lies in the first civilization's technology commanded by vaults linked to a central vault in New York. Within the Animus, Clay sacrifices himself to allow Desmond to wake up from his coma, his memories complete. Along with Shaun, Rebecca, and his father William, Desmond heads to New York to save humanity.
Originally Revelations was announced as Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy, and conceptualized as a Nintendo 3DS title focusing on Ezio traveling to Masyaf. However, on July 15, 2011, it was announced as cancelled. The reason behind such "cancellation" was that Ubisoft had decided to expand the idea further, cancel the 3DS development and fully shift all development duties towards PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC to release the game as a full-fledged main installment of the franchise. The original plot remained, and evolved into the plot seen in the final game, which became Assassin's Creed: Revelations.[9] Included were many new systems and additional weapons such as bomb-crafting, allowing the player to create explosive, distraction and tactical bombs, using materials found throughout the world and on Assassin's Guild missions. The hookblade was also introduced, which can be used in free-running (to travel along zip wires and climb more easily) and in combat (to manipulate enemies). Eagle Vision was upgraded into the Eagle Sense, allowing Ezio to not only see where his enemies and targets are but also, where they have been and where they are moving to. As the player progresses through, Ezio can train new recruits to defend "dens" (Assassin HQs) and an upgraded Assassin's missions section called "Mediterranean Defense" in which the player works to strip control of various cities from Templar hands. The multiplayer mode returned in Revelations, with more characters, modes, and maps, and by advancing up through levels of experience, the player learns more about Abstergo's history.
Assassin's Creed III


Desmond and his allies arrive at the Temple entrance in a cave in the New York area on October 31, 2012, and open its door using the Apple of Eden, discovering a larger chamber of Precursor technology behind it, including another door requiring a key. Desmond suddenly falls into a fugue state, and is put into the Animus.
In the Animus, he experiences the memories of Haytham Kenway, who is later revealed as a Templar British agent, who had gone to the American Colonies with a stolen medallion, and, with Templar allies including Charles Lee, gained the Mohawk people's trust as the means to find a Temple's location, but to his annoyance, the medallion did not open the Temple for him. The remainder of the game shifts protagonist, to the memories of Haytham's son Ratonhnhaké:ton, whose heritage is half Mohawk. As a young boy, he witnesses Lee and his troops set fire to his village, killing his mother; years later, he is shown a Piece of Eden, through which Juno speaks to him and instructs him to get training from the retired Assassin, Achilles Davenport, who later inducts him into the order and nicknames him Connor (in memory of his dead son, deceased in the American Revolution). Through him, Connor meets Patriots in the Revolution, helping them to stop several Templar plans, including an assassination attempt against George Washington. Between memories, Desmond helps his allies to recover power sources to power the Temple scattered about the globe, including one held by Abstergo.
Connor eventually faces his father, who offers a ceasefire, as he is also after Benjamin Church for usurping his authority. They team up to investigate, Kenway warns Connor about the Patriots, seeking to remove Connor's people from their lands due to fear of an allegiance against the British. Connor eventually hunts and kills Lee, takes the medallion and ends the Templar threat. He is despondent to find his tribe's village abandoned save for the Piece of Eden; through it, Juno tells him to hide the amulet. Desmond wakes up on December 21, and with his allies finds the buried medallion, key to the inner Temple door, behind is a control sphere capable of stopping the solar flare. Juno appears and encourages Desmond to touch it, but Minerva appears and warns him not to, as it would release Juno as an entity that would protect against the solar flare, but would also be a threat to mankind's future. Juno says Minerva would rather have most of humanity wiped out, and Desmond survive to be a religious figure to lead the survivors, ultimately leading into conflict. Desmond opts to release Juno, believing humanity will have a better chance fighting Juno. The energy from the control sphere, protects Earth from the solar flare, but kills Desmond. Juno tells Desmond's corpse that his work is now done, and now it is time for her to work.
Assassin's Creed III is structured similarly to the previous games, with missions taking place on an open-world map based on Colonial Boston and New York, and offers a large wilderness area, the Frontier and in the Davenport Homestead, where the player can hunt animals for materials, which then subsequently can be used to construct goods to be traded and sold throughout the colonies. Naval battles were introduced, wherein the player must steer a warship named Aquila in dangerous waters and perform ship-to-ship combat with cannons and mounted guns. In Assassin's Creed III there are a large assortment of side missions to play and many different outfits to purchase as the player progresses through the game. The modern-day aspects of the story were also significantly expanded, and featured missions taking place in, among other locations, Manhattan, Rome and Brazil.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Samples taken from Desmond Miles' body in the moments after his death have enabled Abstergo Industries to continue to explore his genetic memories using the Animus' newfound cloud computing abilities. The unnamed player character is hired by Abstergo's entertainment division to sift through the memories of Edward Kenway, an eighteenth-century pirate and the grandfather of Connor. Ostensibly, this is to gather material for an Animus-powered interactive video game, but in reality, Abstergo and the Templars are searching for the Observatory, a Precursor structure that allows the user to see through the eyes of a subject. As Kenway, the player must unravel a conspiracy between high-ranking Templars to manipulate the British, Spanish and French empires into locating the Sage – later identified as Bartholomew Roberts – who is the only man who can lead them to the Observatory.
In the present day, the player is contacted by John, Abstergo Entertainment's information technology manager. John convinces the player that his employer knows more than they are telling, and encourages them to investigate in more detail. He arranges for the player to access the Animus' core, at which point Juno materialises into an incorporeal form. She reveals that although it was necessary to open her temple to avert disaster, the world was not ready for her, and she is unable to affect it or possess the player character as her agents intended. John is unmasked as the reincarnated form of the Sage and attempts to murder the player to cover up the failed attempt at resurrecting Juno, but is killed by Abstergo's security before he can do so. As Roberts, the Sage admits to Kenway that he owes no allegiance to the Assassins or the Templars and instead uses whoever he thinks represents his best chance of achieving his ends.
Assassin's Creed Rogue

The plot follows Assassin-turned-Templar, Shay Patrick Cormac, and is set during the Seven Years' War across various locations in northeastern North America and the North Atlantic.[10] It is meant to "fill the gaps" of the story between III and Black Flag and has "a crucial link to the Kenway saga", as well as connecting to Unity.[11]  Haytham Kenway from III and Adéwalé from Black Flag make appearances.[12]
By March 2014, a game titled or code-named "Comet," was revealed to be in development, for release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[13] By the end of the month, additional reports indicated that Comet would be set around 1758 in New York, as well as feature sailing on the Atlantic Ocean. The game would be a direct sequel to Black Flag, and would be the first to feature a Templar as the main protagonist, named Shay.  In May 2014, Guillemot stated that Assassin's Creed games would continue releasing on the last generation PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 "for the foreseeable future", despite the franchise moving to the current generation PlayStation 4 and Xbox One with Assassin's Creed Unity.[14] On August 5, Ubisoft officially announced the game as Assassin's Creed Rogue. It was released in North America on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2014[10] and in Europe and Australasia on November 13, 2014.[15] It was released on Windows in March 2015.[16] In January 2018, a remastered version was announced for release on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2018.
Assassin's Creed Unity

The story is set in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution and follows Arno Dorian and his fellow assassins as Dorian attempts to avenge his foster father's death, as well as discover Templar infighting as a result of the Revolution.[17]
On March 19, 2014, images leaked for the next game, titled or code-named "Unity", showing a new assassin in Paris.[13] On March 21, Ubisoft confirmed the game's existence, having been in development for more than three years, by releasing pre-alpha game footage.[18] The game features up to four player co-op, a first for the series.[19]  It was released in North America for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows on November 11, 2014 and in Europe and Australasia on November 13, 2014.[15]
Assassin's Creed Syndicate

The plot is set in Victorian era London and follows twin assassins Jacob and Evie Frye as they navigate the corridors of organized crime, and take back the city from Templar control.
In December 2014, images and information leaked for a new Assassin's Creed game, titled or code-named Victory, which was later confirmed by Ubisoft.[20] In May 2015, Kotaku leaked that Victory had been renamed Syndicate.[21] On May 12, 2015, the game was officially announced by Ubisoft.[22] The PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One version of the game was released on October 23, 2015, while the Microsoft Windows version was released on November 19, 2015.[23]
Assassin's Creed Origins

The story is set in Ptolemaic Egypt and follows a Medjay named Bayek, whose fight to protect his people, leads him to create the Secret Order the Assassins, with the game exploring the origin of their conflict with the Knights of Templar, serving as a prequel to the entire series.
In February 2016, Ubisoft announced they would not be releasing a new game in 2016 in order to step "back and [re-examine] the Assassin's Creed franchise... [and take the] year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we're delivering on the promise of Assassin's Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences".[24] On the decision, Guillemot said that "Ubisoft started to question the annualized franchise with the release of Assassin's Creed Unity, and the fact that Assassin's Creed Syndicate had "a slower launch than expected". Guillemot added that "by moving away from the annual iterations of the franchise, it will give the Assassin's Creed teams more time to take advantage of new engines and technology".[25] Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's director Ashraf Ismail, commented on an interview that he and the team would be interested in doing an Assassin's Creed game in an Ancient Egyptian setting, along with reiterating an earlier statement that a female leading character was not an impossibility for the series.[26] In May 2017, Ubisoft confirmed the development of Assassin's Creed Origins. It was announced to be set in the Ptolemaic Egypt in June 2017. The game was released worldwide on October 27, 2017 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows.[27]
Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The game takes place during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, at the height of Classical Greece. Players choose between two playable protagonists; Alexios and Kassandra, and embark on a quest to discover mysteries surrounding their family, as well as to undermine a proto-Templar organization; the Cult of Kosmos.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey was leaked in May 2018 by a picture posted by the French website Jeuxvideo, and it first announced at E3 2018. The game was released on October 5, 2018 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.[28][29]
Other games
Assassin's Creed: Altaïr's Chronicles

Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad is sent on a mission from the Order of Assassins to retrieve a Chalice from the grasps of both the Crusaders and the Saracens. Altaïr quests to find three different magic keys then travels to Jerusalem to face the head of the Knights Templar, Basilisk. Upon arriving, he learns that the Chalice is not an object, but a woman named Adha who reveals that Altaïr has been deceived by an assassin named Harash, who is now a double-agent for the Templars. After killing both Harash and Basilisk, Altaïr attempts to save a kidnapped Adha from captivity but is too late. The game ends with a captured Adha sailing away and Altaïr left in the holy land.
Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines

Altaïr has traveled to Cyprus from the Holy Land in order to assassinate the last remnants of the Templars. Here Altaïr again meets Maria and they travel together to kill the remaining Templars and learn more about the "Apple of Eden" and the mysterious Templar Archive where more of the artifacts are believed to be hidden. Altaïr manages to kill the new Templar Grand Master, Armand Bouchart, and his followers, but the Archive's contents are discovered to have already been taken from Cyprus.
Assassin's Creed II: Discovery

After losing the Apple of Eden to Girolamo Savonarola, Ezio is told to meet Antonio, his fellow Assassin. When doing so, Ezio finds Antonio with another man named Luis Santangel, who asks Ezio to rescue his friend Christoffa Corombo from a presumed Templar trap set up by Rodrigo Borgia. Ezio rescues Christoffa from this trap, and is informed that Assassins in Spain are captured and executed by Tomas Torquemada. Ezio, who feels that it is his duty to rescue the Assassins, sets out for Spain to fight back against the Spanish Inquisition. Along the way, Ezio finds out that Torquemada was ordered to commit these actions by Rodrigo Borgia, who leads Torquemada to believe that God desired it so. Ezio also finds out that his close allies, Luis Santangel and Raphael Sanchez, are in fact Assassins themselves. When finally confronting Torquemada, Ezio chooses not to kill him thinking that Torquemada is merely misled by Borgia and not a Templar himself. Ezio then returns to Italy to continue his search for the Apple of Eden.
Assassin's Creed Rearmed
Assassin's Creed Rearmed is a multiplayer video game designed for iOS. It is the only Assassin's Creed Multiplayer driven by an in-game economy. The aim is to assassinate the assigned target and avoid being killed by your own hunter. The player can purchase additional items, characters and abilities as well as compete with friends and foes from around the globe in a 4 player realtime online multiplayer mode. Players can connect via Game Center using either WI-FI or 3G. It is also possible to play against someone in the immediate area via Bluetooth. Available map locations include Jerusalem, San Donato, Venice and Alhambra.[30]
Assassin's Creed Recollection
Assassin's Creed Recollection is a real-time board game developed for iOS. The game delivers a new experience to the Assassin's Creed world in which fans and new players alike go head-to-head in real-time political battles with characters from the franchise. Players can also unlock a collection of artwork, spanning the series. The game features over 280 Memories, reconnecting with characters from Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The single-player Story Mode has 10+ hours of gameplay, with 20 missions taking place from Barcelona to Constantinople and 10 challenge missions. In Versus Mode, players can challenge their friends and people from around the world, pitting their strategies and abilities against one another. The game supports Game Center, allowing players to track achievements, challenge friends, and play against the world over. Go behinds the scenes with the Art Gallery, a collection of artwork spanning the entire franchise (Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III) showcasing the high level of quality in character design as well as the attention to detail in the locations. Through the Store, players have the option to Buy Packs for the in-game currency, Animus Credits (Animus Credits may also be purchased through an In-App Purchase), or to Buy/Sell Memories from/to other players in the Market. The short film Assassin's Creed: Embers is also featured within the game.[31]
Assassin's Creed III: Liberation

The story follows a Louisiana Creole woman, named Aveline.[32] Aveline is the daughter of a French merchant father and an African mother. She is recruited into the Assassin Order by a former slave and fights against slavery as well as the Templars.
An original Assassin's Creed title for the PlayStation Vita was announced to be in development during Gamescom 2011, and would feature a new story with new characters. On June 4, 2012 at E3, Liberation was officially announced.[33] Aveline uses a variety of new weapons in combat, including a machete and a blowpipe for ranged attacks. On September 10, 2013, it was announced  that the game would be re-released as Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows via the PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade and Steam, respectively, in January 2014.[34]
Assassin's Creed: Pirates
Assassin's Creed: Pirates is a mobile game, that was released on iOS and Android devices on December 5, 2013.[35] Developed by Ubisoft Paris,[36] the game follows Captain Alonzo Batilla, who is neither Assassin nor Templar, as he commands a ship and crew, while crossing paths with the Assassins and Templars. Gameplay focuses on real-time battles between ships. The title is in 3D and features both wind and weather that will affect how players proceed.[37]
Assassin's Creed Memories
Assassin's Creed Memories is a mobile game that was released on iOS devices on August 20, 2014. Developed along with PlayNext and Gree, the game combines card collection and battling, target chasing, and strategy elements, along with the option of  competitive multiplayer. Additional multiplayer options include allowing players to join a guild and then engage in 20 vs 20 guild combat scenarios. Memories features different historical eras, including the Third Crusade, the golden age of piracy, feudal Japan and the Mongolian Empire.[38]
Assassin's Creed Chronicles

Assassin's Creed Chronicles is an episodic 2.5D action game for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita and Xbox One. The first episode is available with the purchase of Assassin's Creed Unity's DLC season pass and features Shao Jun in 16th century China.[39] The second entry, India, was released on January 12, 2016 on the same platforms, and the last entry, Russia, was released on February 9, 2016.[40]
Assassin's Creed Identity

Assassin's Creed Identity is a game for iOS and Android devices that was released worldwide on February 25, 2016. It is a 3D third-person role-playing game. It had a soft-launch in Australia and New Zealand in 2014.[41]
Assassin's Creed Rebellion
Assassin's Creed Rebellion is a game for iOS and Android devices that was released worldwide on November 21, 2018. It is a free-to-play strategy RPG.
Collections
Assassin's Creed: Heritage Collection
Assassin's Creed: Heritage Collection collects the first five games of the main series into one collection, featuring Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III. Released on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 8, 2013.[42]
Assassin's Creed: The Americas Collection
Assassin's Creed: The Americas Collection, developed by Ubisoft Montreal, features Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The collection was released on October 28, 2014.
Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection
Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, developed by Virtuos and Ubisoft Montreal, features remastered versions of Assassin's Creed II, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations single-player modes, using the Anvil engine, for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (the multiplayer being excluded from the package). The games feature improved graphics, lighting, effects and textures, and also include all previously released downloadable content for the single-player. In addition, the bundle features the short films Assassin's Creed: Embers and Assassin's Creed: Lineage. The collection was released on November 15, 2016 to mixed reviews,[43][44] being generally criticized for its minimal graphical enhancements, the dated gameplay, and the capped 30 frames per second.[45][46]
Cancelled and defunct games
Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy
Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy was a single-player browser-based role-playing game Facebook application, designed as a promotion, and tie-in for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The game is mostly text-based, but includes graphics and sound as well as some video.
Players are test subjects for Abstergo Industries who relive the lives of other test subjects' Assassin ancestors; instead of using the Animus, players use the Data Dump Scanner (DDS).
The first mission pack is titled "Italian Wars", and is divided into four chapters. Chapter one focuses on Bartolomeo d'Alviano during the Battle of Agnadello. The second chapter focuses on Francesco Vecellio on a mission to kill Niccolò di Pitigliano (cousin of Bartolomeo d'Alviano). The third focuses on Mario Auditore and the protection of Monteriggioni. The fourth and final chapter focuses on Perotto Calderon, an undercover assassin who watches over Lucrezia Borgia, with whom he falls in love.
The second mission pack, entitled "Rome", was released November 16, 2010. The first chapter takes place between 1497 and 1503, and deals with the ex-courtesan, Fiora Cavazza. It deals with Fiora's involvement in recruiting an army for the Borgia, and her subsequent betrayal. The second takes place in 1503, and involves Giovanni Borgia, fleeing his family and eventually joining the assassins. Chapter three involves Francesco Vecellio, and his training to be an assassin under Ezio Auditore. Chapter four again focuses on Giovanni Borgia, now an Assassin and joining Hernán Cortés on his journey to Tenochtitlan to acquire a "Piece of Eden", one of the Crystal Skulls. Giovanni brought it to Bombastus for study, resulting in the discovery of the formula for the Philosopher's stone.
The third mission pack, entitled "Holidays", and its first Chapter called Ghosts of Christmas Past were released on December 21, 2010 with further missions to be released in 2011. The first chapter takes place at various times and places in history: during the World War I Christmas Truce, the Beagle 2 truth, the return of Charles II back to England, and the time of the Shroud of Turin.
A fourth story pack, "The Divine Science Story Pack" was announced, but never released. Additionally, an updated user interface (referred to as the 'DDS 2.0') was announced, but not released.  The DDS 2.0 would have offered an easier method of selecting mission packs and equipment.
The game was later shut down and put on an indefinite hold.
Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy
Assassin's Creed: Lost Legacy is a cancelled game, formerly in development by Ubisoft, for the Nintendo 3DS.[47] Sections of the game's plot and premise later became the foundation for Assassin's Creed: Revelations.[48]
The story would find Ezio Auditore da Firenze traveling east to the Assassins' former stronghold in Masyaf, where he would have discovered the origins of the Assassin Order; with possible connections to Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad's story from the first Assassin's Creed.[47] At some point, Ezio would also have traveled to Constantinople, although earlier than he ultimately does in Assassin's Creed: Revelations.[49]
Assassin's Creed: Utopia
Assassin's Creed: Utopia is a cancelled mobile game which was planned to be available on Android and iOS devices.[50][51] The game's story would have led into Assassin's Creed III, though there would have been no links in terms of gameplay.[52]
Utopia would have taken place in the 17th century, at the very beginning of the colonization of North America. Gameplay would have spanned 150 years of history, to help players "discover how the Assassins influenced history and helped shape the nation's original thirteen colonies".[53] The gameplay involved building a colonial city, and was planned to have more of a "social slant" than any of the earlier games. The Assassins of each colony would have taken on their enemies in "limited time epic battles", and players would have been able to pit their strength against friends in asynchronous 3D brawls.[53]
Future
Asked about the future of the series in 2009, Sébastien Puel from Ubisoft said that "we could do 35 of these [Assassin's Creed games]",[54] while Laurent Detoc from Ubisoft later said "we hope to reach Assassin's Creed 10".[55]
In November 2011, a Ubisoft survey was sent out, asking participants which locations and time periods they would like to see in the "next Assassin's Creed games". These settings were Medieval China, Victorian England, Ancient Egypt, the Portuguese and/or Spanish Invasion of the Americas, the American Revolution, the Russian Revolution, Feudal Japan, and Ancient Rome.[56] Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Assassin's Creed III, suggested the most requested Assassin's Creed settings, World War II, Feudal Japan and Ancient Egypt, are "the three worst settings for an Assassin's Creed game".[57] However, Hutchinson stated both he and Corey May were open to the idea of a future entry set during the time of the British Raj,[58] which now consists of the modern states of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. Victorian England, the American Revolution, Medieval China, parts of the British Raj, the Russian Revolution, and Ancient Egypt were subsequently used for Assassin's Creed Syndicate, Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed Chronicles, and Assassin's Creed Origins, respectively, with World War I appearing as a section of Syndicate, and World War II as an easter egg in Unity.
In June 2013, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot stated on the development cycle of the games, saying, "We are making sure the teams who are creating the different iterations have enough time—two years, three years, so that they can take risk and they can change the concept enough so that it can be appealing and fresh."[59] The following August, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's director Ashraf Ismail said that the ending of the franchise had been written, saying "We have an idea of where the end is, what the end is. But of course Yves [Guillemot] announced we are a yearly title, we ship one game a year. So depending on the setting, depending on what fans want, we've given ourselves room to fit more in this arc. But there is an end."[60]
In other media
Ubisoft expanded the Assassin's Creed franchise to other media, including films, comic books and novels.
Television
In November 2016, it was announced that Ubisoft and Netflix started talks regarding how to develop an Assassin's Creed series.[61] In July 2017, Adi Shankar revealed he would be creating the series, which would be in the anime format.[62] The series, which will feature an original story from Shankar, will share the same universe as the other media of the franchise.[63]
Films
Theatrical

A live-action film, Assassin's Creed, set in the same universe as the video games and other media,[64] was released on December 21, 2016 to negative reviews.[65][66] Development for the film began in October 2011, when Sony Pictures entered final negotiations with Ubisoft Motion Pictures to make the film.[67] In July 2012, Michael Fassbender was announced to star in the film, as well as co-produce the film.[68] His role was revealed in August 2015 as Callum Lynch, whose ancestor Aguilar, is an assassin from 15th-century Spain.[69] In October 2012, Ubisoft revealed the film would no longer be produced by Sony Pictures, instead co-produced with New Regency and distributed by 20th Century Fox.[70] In January 2013, Michael Lesslie was hired to write the film,[71] with Scott Frank, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage performing rewrites to the script.[72][73] By the end of April 2014, Justin Kurzel was in talks to direct.[74] Principal photography began on August 31, 2015,[69][75][76] and ended on January 15, 2016.[77] Released on December 21, 2016, the film was poorly received by critics though performed adequately at the box office.
Short films
Assassin's Creed: Lineage

Assassin's Creed: Lineage is a 36-minute film serving as a prequel to Assassin's Creed II.[78][79] The film, released in three parts on YouTube, promoted the game and is the first attempt for Ubisoft to make its first step in the film industry.[80] It is about the story of Giovanni Auditore, Ezio's father, who investigates the mysterious assassination of Duke of Milan Galeazzo Maria Sforza and first learns about Rodrigo Borgia's conspiracy.[81]
Assassin's Creed: Ascendance
Originally named Secret Project Number Three,[82] Ascendance is an animated short by UbiWorkshop and Ubisoft Montreal, which bridges the gap between Assassin's Creed II and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood.[83] It tells the backstory of Cesare Borgia's rise to power. The animated short was revealed by UbiWorkshop on November 10, 2010.[84] It was released on November 16, 2010 for Xbox Live, PlayStation Store and iTunes Store.[85] The short story takes place in the middle of the events of Brotherhood as Ezio Auditore sits and gathers information about Cesare Borgia, from a hooded man who is later revealed to be Leonardo da Vinci.
Assassin's Creed: Embers

The short film follows an elderly Ezio, living a peaceful life in the Tuscan countryside with his wife Sofia and his children Flavia and Marcello and writing his memoirs. One day a stranger appears, a Chinese female Assassin called Shao Jun, who came to Ezio in order to seek knowledge of his life as an Assassin. Although Ezio prefers that Jun not stay, due to his desire to leave his days as an Assassin behind, Sofia allows her to stay for the night. The next day, Ezio catches Jun reading his memoirs and bids her to leave, but relents after she asks him about what it means to be an Assassin. While on a trip to Firenze, Ezio then recounts his story of how his father and brothers were executed in the town square, forcing him to become an Assassin, and how such a life is defined by the pain it brings and causes. As they leave, the two are attacked by a stranger, who appears to be of Asian origin as well. After killing him, Jun reveals that she was a former concubine, now on the run from servants of the Chinese Zhengde Emperor, and explains how her former master rescued her from his influence. After returning to his home, Ezio tells Sofia and his children to leave, knowing that others would come. He then teaches Jun the key to liberating her people from the Emperor's influence. Later that night, Ezio's villa is attacked by more of Shao Jun's enemies, and after a fight, he successfully eliminates them all. The next morning, Ezio hands Shao Jun a small box and tells her it may come to use one day, but only if "you lose your way". He then sends her away as two riders appear at the villa. Sometime afterward Ezio journeys to Firenze with his wife Sofia and their daughter Flavia, despite suffering from heart problems. While resting on a bench and after having a short conversation with a young man with a scar on his face, similar to the sort of man he used to be, he exhales and dies in view of his family. The film then ends as a final letter from Ezio to Sofia is read, saying that of all the things that kept him going throughout life, love for the world around him was the strongest of them all.
Comics

Assassin's Creed: Graphic Novel
In the limited edition of Assassin's Creed, an 8-page graphic novel was included, that showed two side-stories of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and Desmond Miles. The story serves as a prelude to the first Assassin's Creed game and is narrated simultaneously by both characters. In it, the novel covers Desmond's escape from Abstergo in the year 2012 and also one of Altaïr's assassination missions in the year 1191. The start of the novel involves the introduction of the two characters with Altaïr calling himself a hunter, while Desmond is a prisoner. Although initially they describe themselves otherwise, by the end of the novel they both re-introduce themselves as assassins.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 1: Desmond
Assassin's Creed Volume 1: Desmond is a French-language graphic novel written by Eric Corbeyran and drawn by Djilalli Defaux. It has been released in France, Canada, Belgium, Poland and Italy. The comic book was published on November 13, 2009, a few days before Assassin's Creed II was released.[86] The story is a retelling of events from Assassin's Creed and the beginning of Assassin's Creed II, mostly from Desmond's modern perspective; for example it is revealed that Lucy helped the Templars to kidnap Desmond. It also features Subject 16 (referred to as Michael) and a Roman assassin named Aquilus. However, events in the comic book are different from what happens in the game. It is said that Subject 16 is alive but trapped in the animus, a virtual reality simulator used to relive memories of ancient relatives, but there's no mention of Shaun or Rebecca.[87]
Assassin's Creed, Volume 2: Aquilus
Assassin's Creed Volume 2: Aquilus is a French-language graphic novel written by Eric Corbeyran and drawn by Djilalli Defaux. The story opens with a young Desmond recalling his conversation with his father. He wakes up and has a conversation with Lucy. After meeting Rebecca, Shaun and other assassins, they get into a truck and drive to Monteriggioni.
In the meantime, Desmond relives memories of Aquilus through the animus after his apparent death in the first volume. The Roman assassin is rescued by his cousin, Accipiter, and is tasked with a quest to save Lugdunum. He meets with his father and discovers an artifact of the first civilization: an ankh which can temporarily revive the dead. The mysterious object is then stolen by a Templar senator, Vultur, who kills Aquilus' father.
The modern day story continues as Assassins fight Abstergo agents when they're ambushed on the road. Later, it is revealed that there's a traitor among in the Assassins' truck, and Desmond deals with the situation. The group finally arrives in Monteriggioni and at the end, it's hinted that the ankh artifact might be hidden within the town's walls.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 3: Accipiter
Jonathan Hawk was sent by a suited executive and a lab technician to relive Accipiter's memories. He was sent to 259 CE, when Accipiter's Alamans were crossing the Rodanus into Genava and Aube to face the Roman forces at Oppidum. The battle raged bloodily and long, but Accipiter's forces were eventually victorious. Accipiter was met by the Iberian Assassin Cuervo after the battle, the latter coming to congratulate the Alamans on their victory and to discuss the future.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 4: Hawk
Assassin's Creed, Volume 4: Hawk is the fourth volume of the French graphic novels. It is centered on the story of Jonathan Hawk and his Egyptian ancestor Numa Al'Khamsin, a member of the Assassins in the 14th century. It was released on November 16, 2012.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 5: El Cakr
Assassin's Creed, Volume 5: El Cakr is the fifth volume of the French graphic novels. It is centered on the story of Jonathan Hawk and his Egyptian ancestor Numa Al'Khamsin, also known as "El Cakr". It was released on October 31, 2013.
Assassin's Creed, Volume 6: Leila
Assassin's Creed, Volume 6: Leila is the sixth volume of the French graphic novels. It is centered on the story of Jonathan Hawk and his Egyptian ancestor Numa Al'Khamsin, also known as "El Cakr". It is the last of the Egyptian storyline. It was released on October 31, 2014.
Assassin's Creed: The Fall

In July 2010, Ubisoft announced a three-part comic book mini-series set in the world of Assassin's Creed as a part of their UbiWorkshop initiative.[88] Ubisoft has hired illustrators Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl, both winners of multiple comic book awards.[89] The first issue of the series was released on November 10, 2010, the second part on December 1, 2010. It was published by WildStorm.[90] The comic takes place between 1888 and 1908 in Russia and 1998 set in the United States. It follows Nikolai Orelov and his descendant Daniel Cross, a recovering alcoholic experiencing the bleeding effect in a therapist's office.
Assassin's Creed: The Chain

The Chain is a sequel comic to The Fall that completes Nikolai Orelov's story as well as focusing on his descendant, Daniel Cross. The comic will also provide some light on the events of Assassin's Creed III. It was released in mid-2012.[91]
Assassin's Creed: Brahman

Brahman is set in 19th century India, and introduced the Assassin Arbaaz Mir. It was written by Brendan Fletcher with art by Cameron Stewart and Karl Kerschl. It was released in late-2013 in North America.[92]
Assassin's Creed: Trial by Fire

Oscillating between contemporary San Diego and the Salem witch trials, "Assassin's Creed" follows Charlotte de la Cruz, an over-educated conspiracy theorist, who soon comes under attack from Templars after learning she is the descendent of Assassins.[93] The series is published by Titan Comics, and is written by Kill Shakespeare's Anthony Del Col and Conor McCreery, illustrated by Neil Edwards, and coloured by Ivan Nunes.[94]
Manga
Assassin's Creed: Awakening was an adaptation of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in 2013.[95]
Novels


Assassin's Creed: Renaissance
Assassin's Creed: Renaissance is a novel based on the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. It is a novelised version of the game Assassin's Creed II; however, rather than spanning a vast period of time, it is set only in the 15th century with no mention of the series' present-day events.
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is a continuation of the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. It is a novelized version of the game Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood just like its previous book. It does not contain any of the game's present-day events including Desmond, only a reference to a "phantom" by Ezio. Unlike the events of the game which start in 1499, this version of the story starts in 1503.
Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade
Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade is the third Assassin's Creed book by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. The story is told by Niccolò Polo, father of Marco Polo, and is about the life of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad. It was released on June 20, 2011.[96]
Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Assassin's Creed: Revelations is the fourth novel in the continuation of the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden and published by Penguin Books. The novel release date is November 24, 2011 for the United Kingdom and November 29, 2011 for the North America. Like the previous novels of Renaissance and Brotherhood, it is a novelised version of the game Assassin's Creed: Revelations. Additionally like the prior novels, it does not contain any of the game's present-day events including Desmond. Like the game, Ezio Auditore must leave his life behind in search of answers, in search of the truth. In Assassin's Creed: Revelations, master assassin Ezio Auditore walks in the footsteps of the legendary mentor Altair, on a journey of discovery and revelation. It is a perilous path—one that will take Ezio to Constantinople, the heart of the Ottoman Empire, where a growing army of Templars threatens to destabilise the region.[97]
Assassin's Creed: Forsaken
Assassin's Creed: Forsaken is a continuation of the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden. It covers the life of Haytham Kenway during his years before and during the events of Assassin's Creed III.
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag is a continuation of the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden. The novel chronicles the events of the game with the same name. It was released on November 7, 2013.
Assassin's Creed: Unity
Assassin's Creed: Unity is a continuation of the Assassin's Creed series written by Oliver Bowden. The novel focuses on the events of the game from Elise's and Arno's perspectives. It was released on November 20, 2014.
Assassin's Creed: Underworld
Assassin's Creed Underworld unveils the story of Master Assassin Henry Green/Jayadeep Mir, the son of Indian Master Assassin Arbaaz Mir and his wife Pyara Kaur (the two debuted in Assassin's Creed: Brahman), six years before the events depicted in Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.
Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath
Assassin's Creed: Desert Oath is an account of Bayek's early years. The book is a prequel to Assassin's Creed: Origins game and revolves around how a young Bayek follows in his father, Sabu's footsteps to become a Medjay and more. The book further explains why the Order wants Medjay bloodline erased.
Board games
A board game called Assassin's Creed: Arena was launched on February 26, 2014.[98] On it appeared typical characters of Assassin's Creed: Revelations, like Shahkulu, Anacletos, Odai Dunqas and Oksana Razin.[99]
On September 17, 2018 it was announced by Triton Noir the launch of a new board game called Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood of Venice.[100] It will take place in 1509 with Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Leonardo da Vinci, and Lucrezia Borgia; but it also include new characters like Alessandra.[101] It was developed by Thibaud de la Touanne,[102] it will have more than 20 hours of play,[103] and it will be released in November.[104]
Assassin's Creed: Encyclopedia
UbiWorkshop released an encyclopedia of the Assassin's Creed series in 2011. Initially intended as an art book, the project gathered so much material that the company decided to expand it into an encyclopedia. It features works of artists, such as Craig Mullins, Tavis Coburn, 123Klan, Gabz and James NG. Artists were given creative freedom, as they were able to create a unique Assassin from the period of their choosing. The art book contains a "carte blanche" section, which is going to contain fan-submitted artwork.[105][106]
In November 2012, to coincide with the release of Assassin's Creed III, UbiWorkshop released a second edition of the encyclopedia. This Edition contained an additional 120 pages of content, covering both Assassin's Creed III and Assassin's Creed: The Chain, as well as revised content based on feedback.[107]
The Third Edition of the Assassin's Creed: Encyclopedia is an updated hardcover edition incorporating information of characters and events from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed: Brahman along with new artwork and concept art. It was released worldwide on November 11, 2013 and includes 390 pages of new content and a revised version of the second edition, which is also available to purchase from UbiWorkshop.[108]
Reception

The Assassin's Creed series have received mainly positive reviews from critics, many of whom have called Assassin's Creed "...the standout series on [the seventh generation] of consoles".[158] It has been praised for its ambitious game design, visuals, and narratives, but criticized for its technical issues and annual releases of installments, which has sometimes led to a general feeling of over-saturation and loss of innovation.[159][160][161][162] As of September2016, the series has sold over 100 million copies, becoming Ubisoft's best selling franchise and one of the highest selling video game franchises of all time.[163]

In popular culture
References in other video game franchises
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag introduces the character of Olivier Garneau, as the CEO of video game company Abstergo Entertainment (who helps Ubisoft to develop the Assassin's Creed video games within the franchise's fictional plot). During the game's plot, Garneau goes to Chicago, the setting of Ubisoft's game Watch Dogs. In the latter video game, Garneau is the subject of a side mission that sees playable protagonist Aiden Pearce saving him from being kidnapped, it is implied that by the Assassin's Brotherhood. Additionally, two characters in the game are seen playing Assassin's Creed II. Ubisoft has described those appearances as small Easter eggs, and has neither confirmed nor denied a shared continuity between both franchises.[164] Assassin's Creed Origins mentions the news about Garneau's incident in Chicago, along with a picture of Aiden Pearce killing Garneau.[165] Ubisoft still has not confirmed a shared continuity, between both video game franchises, but this is the only crossover that seems to imply a shared plot.
In the 2009 Wii game Academy of Champions: Soccer, Altaïr appears as a playable character along with other Ubisoft characters.[166] In the 2012 game Soulcalibur V, Ezio appears as a playable fighter and is featured on the box art.[167]
Sackboy, the player character from LittleBigPlanet and its sequel, can be costumed as Ezio.[168] In Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands there is an unlockable outfit through Uplay.[169] In Prince of Persia (2008), Altaïr's costume can be unlocked with a code obtained by pre-ordering the game. Final Fantasy XIII-2 has a costume of Ezio from Assassin's Creed: Revelations as an optional costume option as downloadable content.[170] In PC/Mac versions of Team Fortress 2, two promotional items were introduced in 2011 months before Assassin's Creed: Revelations' release. These were both for the class Spy, the first item being the iconic hidden blade, the second a hood based on the one Ezio wore in Revelations.
In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, the outfit of Altaïr is available as an unlockable, though, originally, it was only an April Fools joke by Hideo Kojima. Kojima later repaid the favor, by letting Ubisoft borrow the outfit of the Metal Gear Solid character Raiden as an unlockable in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood.[171] In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the player can jump into a bale of hay from a rooftop (which also includes the "Eagle" sound effect used in the Assassins' Creed games) and use it to attract and subdue enemies. The Assassin order is also referenced by a character.[172]
In downloadable contents, Ubisoft collaborated with Square Enix to held a limited-time Assassin's Creed-themed festival event crossover into the Final Fantasy XV on consoles under the title Assassin's Festival,[173] starting August 31, 2017 until January 31, 2018. The DLC featuring gameplay elements from the Assassin's Creed game series, new additional quests, mini-games, and exclusive items from Assassin's Creed series.
References in other film franchises
In the 2011 Indian film Velayudham, the superhero costume worn by the protagonist is visibly based on Altaïr's in Assassin's Creed.[174][175]