Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is the ninth installment in the Assassin’s Creed series. It was originally released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 23, 2015, and was further released on Windows on November 19 that same year. The game follows the main plot that is carried through the whole franchise; however, Syndicate is set in London during the second Industrial Revolution and follow twin assassins (Jacob and Evie Frye) as they attempt to take back the city from Templar control. Unlike the other games within the series, Syndicate allows players to control two leading characters by switching between them, during or outside of missions. Additionally, after the game was released, numerable amounts of DLC (downloadable content) were released, including three story expansions.
The budget for the game was around $80-85 million and was the second game in the series to be developed by Ubisoft Quebec, as opposed to normally being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. There were 10 main people who worked on the making of the game, which includes directors, producers, designers, programmers, artists, writers and composers, however, there were multiple more people on the team who contributed towards the development of the game.
Directors: Marc-Alexis Côté, Scott Phillips and Wesley Pincombe
Producer: François Pelland
Designer: Frédéric St-Laurent B
Programmer: Pierre-Luc Coté
Artists: Thierry Dansereau
Writers: Corey May and Jeffery Yohalem
Composer: Austin Wintory
The target audience for the game is for mainly males aged 16-25, despite the PEGI rating being 18 and over. In reviews, parents have described the game as being perfect for people aged 12 and over, as the game include blood and gore, however some say that it is not as graphic as it is made out to be by the rating, and that it is tolerable for ages 12 and above. The game includes some strong language, however most of the time it’s mumbled or replaced with words such as “hell” or “damn”. The psychographic audience may be classified as mainstream due to the popularity the game has had since it released. Frequent players, or 'superfans' of the game may respond to the game as a source of security in their lives, and that it is a medium that helps them get through tough times. Young and Rubicam describe people who class as mainstream audiences as people who's life choices depend on 'we' rather than 'me', taking in account that large franchises such as Assassin's Creed have very large fan bases and that fans love to communicate and express their love for the game with each other. Additionally, Syndicate could appeal to people who classify as the explorer as these people are driven by a need of discovery and love to discover new sensations. In this case, Syndicate allows a new type of game play as the story is lead by two characters, enabling control of two lead characters.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate can be applied to Henry Jenkins' Fandom theory as the franchise as a whole has a huge fan base. Fans of Assassin's Creed are extremely passionate towards the game and love to give positive (and negative) feedback about the games. UBISOFT loves to involve the fans as much as they can, so therefore they take on their advice and some of the games have bee tailored upon the fans request. In the photos and videos below we can see fans expressing their love and interest for the game in many different ways. We see people constructing their own social identities by performing in cosplay and some even getting permanent ink on themselves. Some players of the game live stream their game play on streaming services such as Twitch, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Live, and through this, fans can read the game in ways that are not fully authorised by the media producers, this is also known as 'textual poaching'. As these live streams, videos and photos are published for the rest of the world to see (mainly via social media) it is very beneficial for the game itself as it provides it free publicity.
"This game looks so good the gameplay videos all represent great graphics, the characters introduced into the game have already captured many peoples attention, including the whispers heard that announce a new 'Sherlock Holmes character in the game. People were also nervous about the last assassins creed, unity, but it turned out a major success, and many believe that this will follow in its footsteps." (Comment from the release of the trailer)
"In my eyes, every Assassin's Creed trailer hyped me. It always looks really cool, interesting and magnificent. But as soon as I play the game, I loose my faith. Assassin's Creed needs another story like the one from AC II. Something that helps my motivation to survive through out the game." (Comment from the release of the trailer)
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