When the first Assassin's Creed released in 2007, Desmond's struggle with Abstergo was set in the near-future: the year 2012. Pretty soon, that'll be the present, and Ubisoft aims to conclude Desmond's tale before the end of next year.

Why is that date significant? If you've been playing the series, you know that events are veering toward an end-of-days scenario set to culminate in that timeframe. Revelations' creative director Alexandre Amancio explains: "In Assassin's Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot of December 2012. That's fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point."

Since we know that Revelations isn't going to be the game to conclude that plot, Amancio's statement essentially confirms a new Assassin's Creed game (probably III) before the end of next year.

Of course, the resolution of Desmond's story doesn't spell the end of the series. I'm sure there are plenty of assassins scattered throughout history for players to control. "Assassin's Creed is all about cycles," Amancio says. "We have the Ezio cycle and the Altair cycle, and both of those are set to conclude in Revelations, and we have the Desmond cycle, which is set to end on December 2012. But there's many cycles within the brand – that's the whole point. History is our playground."

Amancio also notes that future games probably won't follow the yearly installment model that they have in the past. "Our development approach is changing," he says. "So our cycles aren't structured the same way – so it gives us a little bit more development time."

This is good news all around for fans of Assassin's Creed. Whatever the future holds, though, I still can't wait to play Revelations.

(Source: Eurogamer)