Assassin's Creed Odyssey was released in October 2018 following the release of Origins in 2017. This video game is set in ancient Greece and tells a mythological history of the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta from 431bc to 422bc.
It has a larger focus on the historical mythology and a smaller focus on the conflict between the assassins and templars which is a central narrative element in the other games. Players control a Spartan mercenary, who fights on both sides of the conflict, as they attempt to find their family and eliminate the mysterious Cult of Kosmos. Players are allowed to play as either Alexios or Kassandra, getting the option of a male and female protagonist, In a series first it also features multiple endings.
It also continues the story arc of Layla Hassan, a major character introduced in the previous game, Origins.
Production
Development of the game commenced shortly following the release of Syndicate.
Ubisoft Quebec developed Assassin's Creed Odyssey and it was published by Ubisoft. The game was co-developed by Ubisoft's studios in Montreal, Bucharest, Montpellier, Singapore, Shanghai, Chengdu, Kyiv, and Pune. External studios including Spearsoft and Technicolor also provided additional assistance.
Over 500 people made up the team and differed from the team working on the previous game, Origins. There was 3 writers Jonathan Dumont, who also directed the game alongside Scott Phillips, Melissa MacCoubrey and Hugo Giard. The team consulted historians and also went on a 10 day trip to Greece to make sure the game was authentic as it could be.
Call of duty: Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2 were main rivals of the game at the time due to having similar themes and being aimed at an older audience, all being rated 18 however the focus on historical elements really made the game stand out to other competitiors and the research helped make this game unique. However, when looking at success it was slightly behind those two.
Audience
The target audience for the game would be adults in the range of 18-30 due to the PEGI age rating being 18 so it wouldn't be targeted to younger children as it's only appropriate for adults. The fact there are male and female protagonists (Alexios or Kassandra) would appeal to both a female and male audience. They would have a job that allows them time to play video games, suggesting an average income. They may have interests in historical events due to the bigger focus on history in this game. Due to this being the 11th major installment it would suggest the people playing this would have a big interest in gaming.
According to Young & Rubicam's 4C's, this audience could be classed as explorer due to seeking discovery and wanting to try new ideas and experiences and as Odyssey included new elements this would be appealing to an explorer. The struggler may also be targeted due to wanting to seek escape and they can do that playing the game.
Stuart Hall's Reception Theory is the idea that communication is a process involving encoders by producers and decoding by audiences. There can be three hypothetical positions from which messages and meanings may be decoded.
The dominant-hegemonic position is that the encoder's intended meaning is fully understood and accepted. An example of this is that the audience appreciates history. The team worked hard to research the setting and location of ancient Greek so an audience would appreciate this and think it is realistic. Many people enjoyed the game play and also enjoyed the setting and design of the game meaning they took the preferred reading. However some of the reviews did say that people thought the setting and locations were slightly dramatic and wasn't really an accurate representation but still enjoyed the game suggesting they took the negotiated reading which is where the message is acknowledged generally but is adopted to better fit their own individual experience.
A oppositional reading of the game may be that an older audience may not enjoy the changes of the franchise and the evolution of the genre and direction of stories. This game has new characters and a different setting and location compared to the other games, some of the fans may not enjoy the change due to previous games having carried on the same characters from one game to another.
Marketing
Assassins Creed was marketed through releasing multiple trailers including elements of game play and was also promoted on social media and through billboards in a number of locations including Japan.
The trailers were the main selling point of the game. The official trailer was very cinematic and made it clear what the game was about. Including dramatic scenes of gameplay and violence, it features many appeals to the target audience.
Some of the appeals from the game include the good graphics, having a high quality game makes it more entertaining for a fan to play. From the reviews the game seemed to play very smoothly with no glitches as well which is how the trailer makes it seem. The trailer features many wide shots of the setting which looks very detailed. Some people may see the setting of Ancient Greece being portrayed in the way it is in the trailer for example how realistic the scenes of the Greek temples look and want to play it to feel like they're in the city itself. The storyline also could be an appeal of the game. In the trailer it says 'protect this world' and has a lot of intense action scenes following it. Feeling a sense of achievement fighting off people within the game could easily make people want to play.
At the start of the game play, it shows the female character Kassandra. This would encourage a female audience to play. Seeing a female character fight off male characters isn't really that common within video games so the representation of this is positive. It shows a brave and confident female character taking on challenges and completing them so a female audience may want to play the game based of this game play. The task is to kill the enemy captain, at the start of the game play it says attacking the nation is harder but brings more awards. Having a challenging yet rewarding task may be one of the appeals as it brings a sense of achievement once they have completed the task. At the end it shows you the rewards you earn and how many people you killed. For a fan of the games, this may be exciting as you earn things from the battles which can be helpful later on in the game.
Another appeal of this may be the combat in the battle. At times there was two enemies fighting Kassandra which makes you work harder, this makes the game play engaging as you have to fight back on your own. It is quick and fast paced and may be appealing to gamers.
Success
It was nominated for a number of awards including ultimate game of the year in 2018 for the golden joystick awards however only won the award for best artistic design for the Titanium awards in 2018.
It seemed to be a huge success though as by March 2020 over 10 million copies were sold worldwide however when it was first released physical copies were down 10% compared to Origins. Revenue earned from micro transactions was 170% higher in Odyssey when compared to that of Origins however.
The majority of the reviews for this game are very positive, raving about the entertaining storyline and graphics set in a great location. It instantly gives context from the weapons, music, landscape and clothes. Many fans on gaming forums also said even though the game play can be quite repetitive it is exciting and smooth and seeing how the decisions made play a role in different consequences is good. However, a review from the guardian suggested that it should trust it's writers more instead of throwing combat into situations that don't need it to improve the game as well as the core narrative being underwhelming at times.
Twitch was launched in 2011 and is a live streaming service which focuses on video game lie streaming. Many people have played Odyssey on twitch with over 992k followers of the game on there and lots of people uploaded game play onto youtube giving different versions of how to play the game and the different endings.
Regulation
The game was rated 18 by PEGI which meant it was for adults only and wasn't suitable for anyone under that age which meant children were protected from the content that they shouldn't be accessing. The reason for the rating was due to depictions of violence towards characters, motiveless killing of characters, violence towards vulnerable and defenceless characters and sex.
Livingstone and Lunt who are industry theorists, say there is an underlying struggle in recent UK regulation policies between the need to further interests of citizens and the need to further the interests of consumers. The video game industry is regulated by PEGI in the UK. Given assassins creed Odyssey was given a rating of 18 it made sure younger people who probably shouldn't be accessing the content such as the violent themes were protected as they wouldn't be able to buy it however even though it furthered the interests of citizens, there was a struggle in the need to further the interests of consumers as well. Assassins Creed is a very popular game and younger children would probably be interested in the dramatic scenes and exciting storyline, this could mean parents or older siblings would buy the game for them as they may not see the violent themes to be too much of an issue.
They also state that increasing power of global media corporations, along with the rise of convergent media technologies and transformations in the production, distribution and marketing of digital media have placed traditional approaches to media regulation at risk. People can both legally and illegally download games online so there's little regulation on that which means younger people can't be prevented as much as buying copies in store therefore a younger audience could play the game as they aren't prevented from getting the content.
This may damage Ubisoft's profits as people aren't directly buying it from them.
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