No one likes delays, but what's even worse is when they're not explained. Case in point for Ubisoft's pirate romp Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The game is releasing on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this month, but Ubisoft confirmed that the game wouldn't be hitting PC until November 19, not long before it arrives on next-gen consoles.
So why the three week delay? The game's Lead Designer, Jean-Sebasiten Decant stepped forward to explain the logic to Polygon.
Frankly, it comes down to the system that the "master version" was developed on. As Decant explained, "It all depends on what is the master version," Decant said. "If for instance, the [Xbox 360] version was the master version, or the PlayStation 3 version was the master version, then we'd need a little bit more time to adapt it for the PC. But we need to finish that other version first."
"The technology goal we had was for the current-gen. You need to finish one and make sure that it's clean before you can then finish the others."
For their patience, PC players will get at least one extra option, in that they'll be able to rate each mission in the game as they play along. As Ubisoft explained to Eurogamer, the company is trying to get player input.
"The rating is anonymous and is sent to our servers to be analysed," said the game's Associate Producer Sylvain Trottier stated. "It's an idea that came out of discussions between our creative director Jean Guesdon and our executive producer Sebastien Puel. It was implemented early in the production, more than one year ago. It's also being used during our playtest sessions to gather the player's feedback."
Black Flag is the first prequel in the Creed franchise, and sees players controlling AC3 protagonist Connor's grandfather, Edward Kenway, a former Royal Navy man for the British crown turned pirating privateer in the blue waters of the Caribbean. The game takes place somewhere around 1713, long before the last time we saw any vestige of the assassins, the American Revolution. The colonial frontier of the new world has traded in for the warm waterfronts of Nassau, Havana, and Kingston, with historical figures such as the infamous pirate Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Charles Vane, and others set to appear.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag lands in North America for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 October 29, with the PC version due out on November 19. It will be a launch title for the next-gen PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on November 22.
