Ubisoft are good with numbers. That’s why their investors like them. But we suspect that, if the French publisher were to take a calculator and tot up the average hour-count of an Assassin’s Creed game on Steam, they’d find they’ve made a whoopsie.
The average PC gamer has time to potter about three open-world games in a year, if they’re lucky. But come November, Ubisoft are going to unleash three in just over a week.
The Crew is due first, on November 11. It’ll be followed by Assassin’s Creed Unity on November 14, and Far Cry 4 on November 18.
Assume, for argument’s sake, that you’d like to play them all at launch. That’d give you from Tuesday to Friday to drive the length of a petrol-headed America, and an extended weekend to get to grips with 18th century Paris.
After that, it’d be the overnight train to Kyrat and the mystical land of Shangri-La. By that stage, you wouldn’t be able to tell your trippy Far Cryisms from plain old sleep deprivation.
That’s not to mention the fact that the consoles are getting a second Assassin’s Creed game, Rogue, during the same timeframe – and that The Division is expected after Christmas.
This isn’t the first time Ubisoft have overestimated the stamina of PC gamers. Watch Dogs was originally scheduled to launch a week before Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag in November last year. Thankfully, though, that didn’t come to pass.
What’s a fan of distraction-driven free-roaming to do? Will you pick one at the expense of two others?