Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is the sixth major installment in the Assassin's Creed series. It was originally released in October 2013 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U, and PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One got the game a month later in November. The action-adventure video game is set in a history fictional world of real-life events and follows the millennia-old struggle between the Assassins, who fight to preserve peace and free will, and the Templars, who fight for control. The story of the game is set in the 21st century and puts the player in control of an employee of Abstergo Industries, which is a company that is used as a front by the modern-day Templars, who is manipulated into uncovering secrets related to the Assassins-Templar conflict and the precursor race called the First Civilization. The main story is set in the West Indies during the Golden Age of Piracy (1715-1722), and follows the notorious Welsh pirate, Edward Kenway. The main character, Edward Kenway is the grandfather of Ratonhnhkae:ton / Connor, who is the protagonist in the Assassin's Creed III game, and the father of the antagonist Haytham Kenway. The story follows Edward Kenway as he searches for fortune and a mythical location called the Observatory, which is sought by both the Assassins and the Templars. The plot majorly evolves around the attempted establishment of an independent Pirate republic in the Caribbean. This Assassin's Creed video game is unique compared to others because of the new setting in the West Indies in the Caribbean, but also it brought back multiplayer to the game so that friends could play the game together.
The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and was also publish by Ubisoft, and had a huge budget of $100 million. Ubisoft Montreal is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal. It was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with subsidies from the governments of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada to help create new multimedia jobs. One of the directors for the game, Ashraf Ismail, said in an interview that there was around 900 people that worked on developing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The game can be considered the standout because it took the franchise's already established gameplay model and reformulated it into something original. Previous Assassin's Creed games have heavily focused on the overarching Assassins narrative, always linking the story back to the Animus, the Templars and the struggle for the control over the Pieces of Eden. At the time, there was a sense that the Assassin's Creed franchise was getting stale, but Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag offered something fresh and new for its players, but not taking too much of a departure from the original Assassin's Creed feel.
The target audience for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and the Assassin's Creed franchise as a whole would most commonly be men who are aged 16 and above, even though the game received a 18 PEGI rating. This is because, stereotypically video games are usually targeted towards a male demographic, but this doesn't mean that the game isn't for women as a female demographic is still a part of the games audience. The target audience would fall under the Mainstreamers, according to Young & Rubicam's 4C's model. People who are classed as mainstreamers like to seek security in the media products they consume. Because Assassin's Creed is such a huge franchise and with millions of fans across the world, people would seek these types of media products because they are a big established brand. Their target audience would find security in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag because there has been many other games in the franchise, so the audience aren't going too far from what they are familiar with. The target audience could also be considered to be a part of the Explorers because they seek discovery and challenges, which Black Flag may offer to these types of people as the game requires the player to solve and go through challenges in order to succeed and advance in the game.
For the release of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Ubisoft marketed the game in many ways. For example, many game posters were made to highlight the new release of the game, and to reveal the new theme of their game, as each game seems to have a new setting or a new story. With their first poster, it revealed the games name 'Black Flag' and the new pirate theme for the game, which builds fans excitement as they are able to anticipate the arrival of the new game. Ubisoft also released a trailer for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag months before the game was expected to be released in October, to show off what their game was about and to reveal to fans the new storyline, how it moves on the story from previous games, the different gameplay that will be included in the game, and even the new advancements in graphics. Social media also played a huge role in the marketing of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag as it involved Ubisoft engaging and communicating with fans upon the release of the game to build excitement. On twitter, the Assassin's Creed account published multiple tweets which encouraged fans to join the countdown to the world premiere of the trailer for the new game to build
Its obvious that Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was a huge success for the franchise and was well-reviewed by many critics and fans of the previous games. During the first week of sales in the United Kingdom, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag became the best selling game on all available platforms, beating some of the most popular games like Battlefields 4, and in the United States, it was the third best-selling game of the 2013. As of 2020, the game has sold over 15 million units worldwide. Black Flag was also nominated for many awards including Game of the Year from media outlets like Cheat Code Central, GameSpot, and the Inside Gaming Awards. It won over 15 awards, winning the Spike VGX 2013 award for the Best Action Adventure Game, the GameSpot award for the PS4 Game of the Year and Xbox One Game of the Year, and many more.
Applying Theory
Henry Jenkins
Henry Jenkins suggested that fans are an active participants in construction and circulation of textual meanings. As Assassin's Creed has been releasing games for years previous to the Black Flag game, it means that there is already a well-established fan-base that are instantly drawn to the new games released by the franchise. Many fans of the franchise are able to communicate with the developers of the games, Ubisoft, and give their own thoughts and reviews of the game on sites like Reddit. Ubisoft have encouraged fans of the game to provide feedback on the official Assassin's Creed Reddit page, and some have even been able to benefit the game, as the developers have took the feedback from fans, and made the game a better experience for players.
He also suggested the idea that fans appropriate texts and read them in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers, which is also known as textual poaching. Because the franchise has been releasing games for years, there has been an increase in the fan-base of the game, who have become dedicated to the game and its characters. Many fans have brought the Assassin's Creed games into their lives by getting tattoos of their favourite characters, making their own fan-made movies about the Assassin's Creed game, making their own fan fiction, etc. This shows how the fans of Assassin's Creed games are hugely important for the game as the fans are able to identify with the characters and the game. A huge fan-base means that the game will always have an established audience, as fans of the games are dedicated to the game to the point where they reflect that in their real lives. This shows how there is a strong relationship between the audience and Assassin's Creed because people now have the ability to take their own spin on the game, making thing they like, like the movies and fan-fiction. As social media has developed, its allowed for a community of people who all find an interest in the Assassin's Creed franchise to come together and share their interests with one another.
Jenkins also suggested the idea that fans construct their social and cultural identities through borrowing and inflecting mass culture images, and are part of a participatory culture that has a vital social dimension. Video games, especially Assassin's Creed, offer social experiences in the game, but also offer a community outside of the game, as fans are able to interact with one another. Many fans are able to identify with the characters in the game, and construct their own social identities as they are able to cosplay and dress up as the characters in the games. For example, a lot of fans have cosplayed and performed as the main character of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Edward Kenway. This not only allows for a community of fans to come together and share interest in the game, but also offers free marketing for the game, as fans are performing in character across the world.
Albert Bandura
Another theorist which can be applied to the Assassin's Creed franchise, is Albert Bandura's media effect theory. He suggested the idea that media can implant ideas in the mind of the audience directly, and that audiences can acquire attitudes, emotional responses and new styles of conduct through modelling. In Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the main character, Edward Kenway, is searching for fortune and a mythical location, called the Observatory, which the Templars are also seeking. During this, there are many battles and violence between the main character and the Templars are they both seek the same thing. Bandura would suggest that because there is lots of transgressive behaviour represented in the game, many children who play the game may mimic that behaviour and potentially hurt other children because they have learned that behaviour from the game. Although Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag received a PEGI 18 age rating, many children will still play the game even though there is harmful content involved.
David Hesmondhalgh
David Hesmondhalgh suggested the idea that cultural industry companies try to minimise risk and maximise audiences through vertical and horizontal integration, and by formatting their cultural products. As Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is a part of an already huge franchise with millions of fans across the world,
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