Xbox Addict

AC III Creative Director thinks you are boring

Thanks to Mass Effect 3 and the Devil May Cry reboot, there’s been a lot of talk lately about whether fans should have a say on franchise direction. We’re generally of the mind that the last word belongs with developers - but we will admit to sticking out our lower lips when Ubisoft’s Alex Hutchinson, creative director of Assassin’s Creed 3, told us that he’d hate to set an Assassin’s Creed game in feudal Japan.
 
In case you’ve somehow missed all the words we’ve been throwing at it, Assassin’s Creed 3 takes place in colonial America and stars a part Native American protagonist. "People on the internet suggest the most boring settings," Hutchinson mused when we asked him whether he’d considered certain hotly demanded alternatives. "The three most wanted are WWII, feudal Japan and Egypt. They’re kind of the three worst settings for an AC game."
 

Really, Alex? We are disappoint. The apathy for World War 2 is understandable - too many guns - but Egypt? Egypt gave us Tomb Raider, the original 3D action-adventure. And Japan? Japan gave us Tenchu, the first "true" 3D stealth game. Where’s the tension here? What is it about the thought of ninja-dashing across pagoda roofs or trotting through the bowels of a pyramid that goes against the grain?
 
Hutchinson has time for India, at least. "[Assassin’s Creed 3 writer Corey May] really wants to do India, " he told us, less the square brackets. "I would too. I’d really love to do the Raj."
 
We named imperial China, ancient Egypt and revolutionary Russia as possible Assassin’s Creed 3 settings in a feature published just before the reveal, basing our speculations on (accusing stare) the contents of Ubisoft’s official Assassin’s Creed Encyclopaedia.
 
Why do you think Hutchinson thinks these settings are unworkable? We weren’t able to get him to elaborate, alas, what with the Assassin’s Creed 3 demo unfolding past his shoulder.