Ubisoft polls fans on Assassin's Creed's future and pirate spinoff (update)

Ubisoft is asking Assassin's Creed fans for their thoughts on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and the series' future, including whether the pirate content in Black Flag could work by itself in its own franchise, reports IGN.

The survey asks questions about what fans would like to see in a new Assassin's Creed title, with potential answers including a new protagonist in a different time period, the ability to enter more buildings without loading times, second-screen play and additional historical characters.

Ubisoft also asked about Black Flag's pirate elements: "Do you think this game could have been a whole new franchise (pirate only and not an assassin)?" Respondents could answer "yes" regardless of whether they felt that the pirate content in Black Flag fit with the Assassin's Creed series.

The survey went on to ask fans for their thoughts on the features that a non-Assassin's Creed game about pirates could offer. The list included player-versus-player naval combat — which developer Ubisoft Montreal couldn't do in Black Flag — and cooperative play.

Last year, Ubisoft sent out a similar survey about Assassin's Creed 3, in which the publisher also asked about co-op. We've reached out to Ubisoft about the new survey, and will update this article with any information we receive.

Update: Reached for comment, a Ubisoft representative sent the following statement to Polygon: "As in previous years, Ubisoft takes these surveys seriously to help us gauge which direction [fans would] like to see future Assassin's Creed games head. You know how much we love reading Abstergo market analysis reports."