The year is only a couple of weeks old and already the videogame rumour mill has started churning.

Fans of Ubisoft’s historical stealth/stab/open world series, Assassin’s Creed, may be interested to learn that videogame site Kotaku claims that an insider at the publisher has revealed details about the franchise’s next instalment.

Citing “a number of sources speaking both to Kotaku and others” and “one person familiar with Ubisoft’s upcoming gaming plans”, the new game will be called Assassin’s Creed: Empire and it will be set in ancient Egypt. The report also states that the next main Assassin’s Creed game won’t see release until 2017.

If true, the new release date marks something of a seachange for Ubisoft’s top franchise. The publisher has released an Assassin’s Creed game every year since the launch of Assassin’s Creed II back in 2009.

The delay in the new title may have something to do with the fact that last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate first week sales were markedly lower than any of that game’s predecessors. Ubisoft opined at the time that the sales may have been impacted by the negative reception of 2014’s Assassin’s Creed: Unity, which was riddled with bugs and glitches at launch.

So it looks like the Assassin’s Creed faithful may have to wait a little longer than usual for their stab/stealth fix. That having been said, the movie adaptation of Assassin’s Creed starring Michael Fassbender is out this December, so they’ll at least have that to look forward to.

[Source: Kotaku]