Assassin's Creed: Origins

'Assassin's Creed: Origins' was released on October 27, 2017 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, it is an action role-playing video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. While Assassin's Creed had been an annual franchise up until this point, Ubisoft decided to spend another year developing Origins to polish the game further. This was largely due to the negative reception of 'Assassin's Creed: Unity' and the disappointing sales figures of 'Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.' The franchise was turning a decade old and many fans started to feel like the games were starting to stagnate. Therefore, to keep the loyal fanbase satisfied, Ubisoft released Origins with a plethora of changes from the regular instalments of the franchise. The game received positive reviews from critics, with many calling it an improvement over previous entries and praising the story, characters, voice acting, reworked gameplay systems, world design, historical accuracy, and the visuals. The game is a prequel to the Assassin's Creed Franchise set in Egypt from 48 BC where the protagonist, Bayek, begins the foundation of the Assassin's Brotherhood. Taking the time to let a franchise breathe lead to great things.

This game had the second highest budget in the franchise, around 150 million in US dollars, and at the time was the most expensive. With help from a team of nearly 700 people from other Ubisoft studios around the world, the game's development began following the release of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag in 2013, and continued development for 4 more years. The team then consulted Egyptologists and historians extensively with the intention of securing the setting as authentic and historically accurate in the game. Ubisoft Montreal led the game's development, with assistance provided by other Ubisoft studios in different parts of the world. The game was released during a time when companies where criticized for releasing unfinished and unpolished games, such as Activision Blizzard and EA, it was also during a time when there were a multitude of yearly franchises plaguing the market; Assassin's Creed was also part of this category, however, taking time to release this entry reinforced a shift in the gaming market. The target audience for Origins was aimed at older fans by adding new features to the preexisting mechanics that enticed them to the franchise originally. The PEGI rating given to the game signifies that the target audience are adult age, yet the developers are aware of the more teen-based audience the games attract. The target audience is most likely 13 - 24 as the original games in the series have been out for over a decade.

Ubisoft posted on every social media platform with ambiguous marketing that intrigued long-time fans of the franchise with suspense around where the game was set, what updates to the game interface have been made was key to launching an actual campaign for the game. Their social team then chose to profile characters and locations separately while also phasing in gameplay and cutscene trailers throughout their feed. Moreover, fans of the franchise could pre-order the exclusive DLC and were rewarded with an extra 10-15 hours of gameplay. Ubisoft also offered cross-franchise DLC, with the intention to promote their game’s series to strong fans of another. Assassin’s Creed Origins did a great job of this with their cross-promotion with Final Fantasy XV which has a strong following of its own, and brought in more appeal to the game.