Assassin's Creed

Assassin’s Creed is a long-running historical action-adventure video game series and media franchise published by Ubisoft, with most main entries developed by Ubisoft Montreal using the Anvil game engine and its later, more advanced versions. The franchise was created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond, and Corey May. Its core story follows a fictional, centuries-old conflict between the Order of Assassins—who champion peace and free will—and the Knights Templar, who seek peace through order and control. The games blend historical fiction, science fiction, and made-up characters with real historical events and figures. In the majority of titles, players take on the role of a historical Assassin, while also controlling an Assassin Initiate or someone caught up in the Assassin–Templar struggle in a present-day framing story. The series is considered a spiritual successor to Prince of Persia and drew inspiration from Vladimir Bartol’s novel *Alamut*, which itself was based on the real Hashashin sect of medieval Iran (Persia).

The first Assassin’s Creed game launched in 2007, and the series now includes fourteen main installments, with the latest being *Assassin’s Creed Shadows* in 2025. These main games are set in open worlds and played from a third-person perspective. Gameplay centers on combat, stealth, and exploration, with parkour used to move through the environment. Each title offers main and side missions, and some include competitive or cooperative multiplayer modes.

Every new entry introduces a fresh story and often a different time period, with gameplay evolving over time. The series has three overarching narrative arcs. The first five main games follow Desmond Miles, a descendant of several key historical Assassins. He uses a machine called the Animus to relive his ancestors’ memories and locate powerful artifacts known as Pieces of Eden, aiming to prevent a catastrophic event tied to the 2012 phenomenon. From *Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag* through *Assassin’s Creed Syndicate*, the story shifts to Assassin initiates and Abstergo Industries employees—Abstergo being a front for the modern-day Templars—who record genetic memories using Helix software, helping both factions find new Pieces of Eden in the present. The next three games—*Assassin’s Creed Origins*, *Odyssey*, and *Valhalla*—follow Layla Hassan, a former Abstergo employee, on her own mission to save humanity from another disaster.

The main entries have generally received positive reviews for their visual ambition, game design, and storytelling, though they have faced criticism for yearly releases, frequent bugs, and a growing emphasis on role-playing mechanics in later titles. The series has won multiple awards, including several Game of the Year honors. Commercially, it is Ubisoft’s best-selling franchise and one of the best-selling video game series ever, with over 200 million copies sold by September 2022. While main games are made for major consoles and desktop platforms, numerous spin-offs have been released for consoles, mobile devices, and handheld systems. The franchise also includes art books, encyclopedias, comics, and novels, plus a live-action film adaptation that came out in 2016.

**Development history**

Ubisoft sees the series as having three distinct periods of development and design philosophy. Period one, running up to *Assassin’s Creed Syndicate* in 2015, focused on single-player content. These games were built around open worlds and included some role-playing elements, but remained primarily action-adventure and stealth-oriented. Period two, from *Assassin’s Creed Origins* to *Assassin’s Creed Mirage*, introduced more role-playing features and live-service elements to boost player engagement. Period three began with *Assassin’s Creed Shadows*, applying lessons from the second period to create immersive single-player experiences similar to the early titles, but with new features that let players share achievements and content through an Animus Hub system.

**Period one**

The first *Assassin’s Creed* game grew out of ideas for a sequel to *Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time*, targeting the seventh generation of consoles. The Ubisoft Montreal team wanted to take that game’s gameplay into an open-world format, using the improved processing power to render larger spaces and crowds. Narratively, they aimed to move away from a prince next in line for the throne and instead have the protagonist work for that position. After researching secret societies, they settled on the Order of Assassins, based on the historical Hashashin sect of Ismaili Shia Islam. The story was heavily inspired by the 1938 novel *Alamut*, which focuses on the Assassins under Hassan-i Sabbah during the Crusades. Initially, the team developed a game where the player controlled an Assassin escorting a non-playable Prince, calling it *Prince of Persia: Assassin* or *Prince of Persia: Assassins*. Ubisoft was uneasy about a *Prince of Persia* game without the Prince as the playable character, but the marketing division suggested the name *Assassin’s Creed*, referencing the Assassins’ creed from *Alamut*: “nothing is true; everything is permitted.” Ubisoft Montreal ran with this, creating a new intellectual property, removing the Prince, and building the game around the Assassins and Knights Templar in the 12th-century Holy Land. As they considered other historical assassinations they could cover, they expanded the concept further.