E3 2013

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed that the publisher currently has three Assassin’s Creed titles in development to ensure that it meets its annual release schedule for the franchise.

“We are making sure the teams who are creating the different iterations have enough time—two years, three years, so that they can take risk and they can change the concept enough so that it can be appealing and fresh,” he told Kotaku at E3. ‘Our job is to make sure the teams have enough power, enough energy and enough time to take the necessary steps to create a high quality game.”

While none of the titles were named it’s presumed that one is Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and the other two are for release in 2014 and 2015. It’s the publisher’s multi-studio approach which makes maintaining a level of quality with annual releases possible.

“Really, what we see is that we can have the capacity to regularly come with innovation,” Guillemot said. “That is, for me, the formula: if you can really change the game on a regular basis and bring in innovation your fans want a product very regularly. Our job is to make sure the teams have enough power, enough energy and enough time to take the necessary steps to create a high quality game.”

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is due to release October 29 in the U.S. and November 1 in Europe for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Wii U. A PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release has also been confirmed.