Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag was first released October 28th 2013 for the Playstation3, Xbox 360 and the Wii U and is the fourth numbered game in the Assassins Creed series.
The story is set around you playing as a researcher who uses newfound technology to explore (and play) as Edward Kenway, a pirate from the golden age of piracy who is an ancestor to previous games protagonist's, and must uncover his secrets/memories for company ‘Abstergo Entertainment’ who are searching for a first civilization structure within Edwards memories. The character of Edward Kenway links directly and chronologically to the previous assassin's creed games as the Kenway family and their storyline continues from the 3rd game and it’s events.
This Assassins Creed game stands out from other games in the series due to its focus on maritime gameplay, allowing players to sail and explore the open world whilst still including usual combat/stealth such as engaging in naval battles which are new features that cannot be found in the previous games.
Production
The budget for the game was not publicly disclosed by Ubisoft, however it is believed to be estimated around $100 million due to the games large scale detailed world and the research put into historical accuracy of the golden age of piracy with 900 people contributing to the game's development across various cities around the world including Montreal, Annecy, Bucharest, Kyiv, Milan Montpellier Singapore and Sofia. Production began mid-2011 and took 2 years to release, focusing on a historically accurate take on piracy rather than playing on stereotypes and claimed to of primarily used resources from ‘Captain Charles Johnson's A General History of the Pyrates (1724)’ and ‘Colin Woodard's The Republic of Pirates (2008)’ For the games soundtrack, the sole composer from the previous games (Lorne Balfe) did not compose the soundtrack for Black Flag. Instead, composer Brian Tyler, who created the soundtrack for Far Cry 3, composed the soundtrack which was released digitally on October 14 2013 along with 2 additional albums including sea shanties from the game and other background music from multiplayer.
Audience
The target audience for Assassin's Creed Black Flag is 18-28 year olds due to the game's PEGI 18 rating. The game was given this rating due to its severe and gory/bloody violence within combat and there is also slight strong/mature language within the games cutscenes. Overall, the game is targeted towards male players as most playable characters and protagonists are male, however as the video game industry grows more women play more games and therefore increases the wider audience for black flag. In addition to this, most Assassins Creed games center around historical events and therefore appeal to players who are interested in history due to the game's devolution to research and accuracy when creating the world and other historical figures. Historical figures such as Calico Jack and Benjamin Hornigold, both pirates, are referenced within the game which can also appeal to players who are interested in piracy and pirate related games as the entire story is based around playing as an infamous pirate. The game additionally draws in a more wider audience due to its emphasis on the exploration and adventure aspects of the game, including a large open world which appeals to the explorer according to the 4C’s. The explorer is driven by the need for discovery and challenge which are both found/achieved within black flag.
Marketing
Assassins Creed Black Flag was first announced February 8th, 2013, with a promotional poster, following a leak of marketing material a few days prior. A cinematic trailer was released for the game on March 4th, 2013, revealing to audiences the pirate theme of the game which set it apart from others in the series, emphasizing its adventures aspects which was proven a popular reason as to what fans loved about the previous games. The trailer was titled ‘The pirate heist’ which introduced the main characters to audiences and included ‘sneak peek’ into the history of piracy in the game which appealed to audiences interested in history or pirates overall and created excitement for the games release which was set to be October that year. Another way in which the game was marketed was through social media such as Facebook with Ubisoft aiming to ‘build awareness and drive purchase intent’. This was done by using algorithms to reach players of previous games and using the slogan ‘History is our playground’ The slogan again aims to highlight the games historical accuracy, claiming to include figures including Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack, Charles Vane, and Blackbeard, and even including smaller historical details such as key dates and places of events lining up accurately with real life.
Success
The game became one of the bestselling games in 2013 with over a million copies sold as of 2014 and won the VGX award for best action-adventure game in 2013 and having the soundtrack nominated for both a BAFTA and international film music critics award, receiving good reviews and responses from professional critics. Many critics believe that Black Flag is potentially the best installment in the franchise and that its more adventurous aspects favor the gameplay. Reviewers claim that the game is an ‘outstanding adventure’ and that it is a ‘memorable’ Assassins Creed game due to its detour from previous games into piracy. Despite this, negative reviews also claim that the graphics in the game seemed ‘messy and pixely’ and that missions within the game felt repetitive, with multiple reviews stating almost all missions are ‘eavesdropping’ and ‘tailing other guys’ which causes the game to become ‘dull and boring’ quickly, with some players even giving up without completing the game. This, however, may depend on the player, as the game is clearly strongly centered around pirates which may not be seen as interesting to more devout players of the previous games who would prefer more elements and focus on surrounding the actual Assassins Creed Concept of the conflict between assassins and templars.
Despite the games success and dedicated fan base, there are not as many people watching/playing the game on streaming websites such as twitch tv or youtube. However, according to Ubisoft, the games most amount of players in the last 30 days at one time is 2358 which is relatively good considering the game being over 10 years old with a large franchise of other assassins creed games releasing every year since.
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