Ubisoft aims to end Desmond's story with Assassin's Creed in 2012

Assassin's Creed Revelations promises to wrap up Ezio Auditore da Firenze's story this November, but what of Desmond?  You remember Desmond Miles, right?  The perpetually confused descendant to Altaïr and Ezio.

Seems Ubisoft is set on ending Desmond's arc by December 2012, according to AC Revelations Creative Lead Alexandre Amancio.  Why 2012?  If you've kept up with Assassin's Creed, then you know why -- though the year's significance is fairly easy to guess.

"In Assassin's Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot of December 2012.  That's fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point.

"We had such a complex and strong narrative that we ourselves did our best to just try to execute these games before that date.  It would be stupid of us to be centring a game on a semi-reality and then have that conclusion happen after that date in real life."

Since Altaïr and Ezio will be bowing out of the spotlight after Revelations, Ubisoft's focus will divert back to Desmond.  As Amancio explains, the game is separated into "cycles," and the "Desmond cycle" is set to end soon.

"Assassin's Creed is all about cycles - we have the Ezio cycle and the Altair cycle, and both of those are set to conclude in Revelations and we have the Desmond cycle, which is set to end on December 2012.  But there's many cycles within the brand - that's the whole point. History is our playground."

Following the 2012 wrap-up to Desmond's story, the Assassin's Creed series will pick up with a new lead character, but the rate at which Ubisoft releases new AC games will be slowing down significantly, giving the development team more time.

"We're already structuring the way we do Assassin's Creed, so it will no longer ever be like that.  Our development approach is changing so our cycles aren't structured the same way - so it gives us a little bit more development time."