No New Assassin's Creed Game in 2016

Ubisoft officially announced Thursday that there will be no new Assassin's Creed game in 2016. The news comes after several years of new iterations (with two new games in 2014, in fact) on an annual basis.

Ubisoft specifically mentions the release of their first new generation-exclusive AC game, Unity in their announcement. When that game hit shelves in 2014, it was plagued with bugs that made the game at best laughable and at worst unplayable.

"Since the release of Assassin's Creed Unity, we've learned a lot based on your feedback," Ubisoft wrote in the press release. "We've also updated our development processes and recommitted to making Assassin's Creed a premier open-world franchise. We're taking this year to evolve the game mechanics and to make sure we're delivering on the promise of Assassin's Creed offering unique and memorable gameplay experiences that make history everyone's playground."

The most surprising part of this is that there is new Assassin's Creed this year. The trilogy of Assassin's Creed Chronicles games just hit shelves this week - giving the franchise a 2.5D take and three new-to-games assassins. There's also a film hitting theaters in December starring Michael Fassbender, which Ubisoft hyped up in the release.

"Having already visited the set, we can't begin to describe how surreal and exciting it is to walk the real-world halls of Abstergo, or see the intricate replicas of Assassin weaponry. We have an outstanding cast and crew that want to honor the rich lore of Assassin's Creed and bring a fresh perspective to the ongoing battle between Assassins and Templars that's fit for the big screen," they wrote. The film recently wrapped principal photography.

But that means there won't be a new Assassin's Creed game on the shelves when the movie hits. What does that mean? Well, it wouldn't be surprising to see some kind of remaster or repackage this fall while the next chapter gets worked on for 2017. For now, gamers can enjoy Chronicles and last fall's Assassin's Creed Syndicate, which still has more DLC on the way.