Assassin's Creed Valhalla Developer Teases The Game's Massive Map Size

Like its most recent predecessors, Assassin's Creed Valhalla's map is going to be massive, which should come as no surprise considering that 15 different studios have helped develop the game. At the moment of publishing, it's unclear just how big the game is or if it's bigger than Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Assassin's Creed Origins, some of the biggest games ever made. While Ubisoft isn't ready to divulge these specific details, it has confirmed that the game is "quite large."

According to the game's creative director, Ashraf Ismail, the game's map and the world will consist of not just Norway -- the land of the Vikings -- but ninth-century England. "It is quite a large map," added the creative director.

"We focus on four major kingdoms of England during this time period: Wessex, Northumbria, East Anglia, and Mercia," said Ismail while speaking to Game Informer. "So for history buffs, they can look for that. It's a large part of England, and within that, you have three major cities: London, Winchester, and Jorvik (now called York in modern days, but Jorvik back then). And then we have a ton of towns, and of course, we have Norway as well."

If that doesn't sound big enough, don't worry, there's more. According to Ismail, this is just the game's "core." The creative director teases that the team has "other surprises" when it comes to the game's world and map.

"We have other surprises that I won't get into in terms of the world and map. But that's the heart of the journey," said Ismail. "We start in Norway, and we see the natural beauty of this world, but we also feel the difficulty of living in this barren land…so we move from there and settle in England. And then it's about the journeys through the kingdoms of England. Of course, players can go back and forth to Norway as they please. There's a lot to see and do in Norway."

Of course, size doesn't matter much if the surroundings aren't well-realized and immersive. This is one area where the series has struggled compared to some other recent open-world games, like Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. It's cool to explore such a massive chunk of ninth-century Europe, but only if it feels like ninth-century Europe.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla is in development for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC. At the moment of publishing, it's slated for a late 2020 release.

For more on the game, be sure to check out our article that dives deep into everything we know so far about the latest release in the popular and long-running series.