Are the Assassin’s Creed 5 location hints contained in AC 4 just a bunch of misdirection by Ubisoft writers?

In a related report by The Inquisitr, the Assassin’s Creed 5 release date has been set for 2014 but otherwise not much else is known about the title other than the confirmation that the series will have annual refreshes similar to Call of Duty. We’ve also discussed the possibility for future stealth games to use new AI-based object recognition.

After the death of a critical character to the series, some wondered if the Assassin’s Creed series might be coming to an end. That’s not the case and the writers of the story view the first three games in the series as a trilogy focused on just one character in a very large history. Since all of history is their backdrop they feel free to take gamers wherever they wish.

Bu that doesn’t mean these writers will necessarily tell us their plans in advance. Still, Ubisoft creative director Jean Guesdon went out of his way to tease gamers about the Assassin’s Creed 5 location, saying it could be in Japan:

“Feudal Japan remains – like numerous other time periods and locations – a possible future setting for the franchise because, thanks to the Animus, the entire human history is our playground…. The present day sections of Black Flag are the perfect vehicle for fan service; giving more information about what fans may know, and for universe exposition, exposing to newcomers the incredible content that’s already been developed.”

The other major rumor for the AC5 location was ancient Egypt and there was actual evidence this might be the case due to a character design from leaked gameplay images in an unknown title showing up in Assassin’s Creed 4. But other people who’ve played both AC 4 and Freedom Cry believe King Author’s court or perhaps even the American Civil War will be the next AC 5 location based upon hints in these previous games.

One seemingly indisputable piece of evidence would seem to be an email chain in Black Flag that lists off Victorian London, the Wild West, and Japan as options. But AC 4 lead writer Darby McDevitt say that’s all a lie intended as fan service:

“The email thread that’s in the game, I wrote that very swiftly in an afternoon but I didn’t realize that Kotaku would write like two huge articles about it. What a lot of people don’t realize is that the time periods I picked were not necessarily the ones we were considering, it was just me parodying the ones that the fans had asked for back to them. So the fans generated that list, we didn’t generate that list. I will say that fans definitely think alike. We have the same goals for the series, let’s say. I’ll leave it at that. We always want to surprise.”

Still, McDevitt does give us a hint, of a sort. He points out how the company invested into developing the character animation system that allowed the moving parts of the naval combat system in both AC 3 and AC 4. He says the technology will show up in Assassin’s Creed 5, just not with a boat, so that could be interpreted to mean the next AC 5 location will not involve oceans.

will be waiting
thx