We’ve all heard the standard “Netflix adaptations suck” phrase. And, to be clear, they very often do. However, sometimes a Netflix production can provide new life to the adapted franchise (just rememberCyberpunk: Edgerunners), which could be exactly what the dwindlingAssassin’s Creedseries needs.
Assassin’s Creedhas been in the pits for several years now. Ever sinceAssassin’s Creed: Black Flag, we haven’t really seen great games in the series. Sure,UnityandSyndicatewere fine, but once Ubisoft made the switch to RPG instead of immersive stealth, things started falling apart.
They retained all the glee usually associated with Ubisoft—sprawling open worlds, beautiful graphics, and so on. But the gameplay, stories, and everything in between generally lacked the quality of the older titles.
Anyone who’s been around gaming for a spell knows the name Ezio Auditore. Many know Altair. Some may even know Connor and Edward. But few can remember the characters of later games, especially those likeMiragethat Ubisoft seems to have treated as some kind of random content drop rather than a full-blown game.
So, this is where the Netflix series comes in.
Yes, yes, I know it’s being produced by theHaloadaptation guy, and we’ve already had a subpar live-actionAssassin’s Creed. All valid points of concern.
However, a Netflix adaptation could provide a lot of vigor to a genuinely dying series. If done right (and that’s a big if), it could even openAssassin’s Creedup to more people, make those sales start coming in again, and give Ubisoft, partnered with Tencent, more reasons to keep chugging along.
After all,Cyberpunk: Edgerunnersdid just about the same with CDPR’s title. The game suffered a lot of bad rep for years by the time the anime launched, the numerous patches, fixes, and updates notwithstanding. Post-Edgerunners, however, things started looking up. People started revisiting the game, CDPR kicked into overdrive to provide as much content (especiallyEdgerunners-themed stuff), andCyberpunk 2077finally started seeing green.
The samecouldhappen toAssassin’s Creed, and honestly, it’s probably the series’ best bet. Ubisoft surely understands this.
What’s more, so does Tencent, which played no small part in makingArcanea thing, and we all know just how successful that turned out to be.