Ubisoft has ruled out the possibility of incorporating a companion app for upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate as it wasn’t deemed part of the “core experience,” according to a company spokesperson.
It’s a little surprising when you consider that both Black Flag and last year’s Unity featured the adjacent add-on, which connected the adventures on screen with a litany of stats and exclusive puzzles on mobile platforms. However, there was a portion of the Assassin’s Creed faithful who believed the app itself was shoehorned into each installment; thrust into the experience rather than built from the ground up as part of the game’s world.
For Syndicate, though, Ubisoft believed this year’s installment isn’t suited to the second-screen experience, and here’s what the company had to say on the matter in an interview with Eurogamer.
“There will not be a companion app,” the spokesperson said. “For Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, the team wanted to focus all their efforts on the core experience. This game will be single-player,” Guillemot said. Asked to clarify his comments, he added, “You don’t have a multiplayer mode on this iteration … because we want to spend all our time on making sure the single-player is excellent.”
Above all else, Ubisoft Quebec appear to be stripping away all of the superfluous content that has been tacked onto the series in recent years. In fact, Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate will also do away with the co-op feature found in last year’s Unity, instead doubling down on the core, single-player story which is shaping up to be very intriguing indeed as it centers around stealthy siblings Jacob and Evie Frye.
Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate will explore the criminal underbelly of Victorian London when this year’s entry in the mega-franchise debuts on October 23. In the interim, tell us, what do you make of Ubisoft’s dismissal of the companion app?