Assassin’s Creed Syndicate received a largely positive critical reception, but it seems that not even a switch to a London setting could convince fans of the series who were disappointed with Assassin’s Creed Unity to fork out money for its successor, as it has achieved the second worst launch sales in the series’ history in the UK.
Syndicate has still topped the charts in the UK according to Chart-Track, but it has recorded the worst week one sales of any major Assassin’s Creed game, with the last-gen-only spin-off Assassin’s Creed Rogue being the only game to sell less in its history. This is not good news for Ubisoft, who were hoping that a change of scenery for the franchise would lead to it overcoming the negativity generated by Unity’s broken launch.
So what does this mean for the future of the Assassin’s Creed series? While Syndicate has still managed to knock FIFA 16 off the top of the charts, it seems that fatigue may finally be setting in, which is an inevitability for any franchise that receives annual releases. With reviews indicating that Syndicate improved upon its predecessor but still failed to match Assassin’s Creed fans’ high expectations of the series, it seems that Ubisoft would be wise to rest the series for a short while to ensure that interest in their flagship franchise doesn’t continue to dwindle.
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While sales figures for the US have yet to be released, it’s likely that it has suffered a similar fate in the region. It was inevitable that the poor reception to Unity would impact upon Syndicate‘s sales somehow, with Ubisoft needing to deliver a true game of the year contender if they wanted to completely overcome the stain on their reputation caused by the previous Assassin’s Creed game. Unfortunately for them that wasn’t the case, and instead the developer now needs to look at what they can do to ensure that one of their most popular series doesn’t continue to lose followers.
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