Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag Poster Hints at Piracy on High Seas

A poster reportedly meant as part of the promotional material for the next Assassin's Creed game has been leaked to gaming Web site Kotaku. And according to the image, the next instalment will focus on pirates. The game is to be titled: Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Kotaku's source adds the poster will be released to stores on 4 March and if that does indeed come to pass, it will make the wait for the next instalment of Ubisoft's brilliant series absolutely interminable! Earlier reports suggested the French-Canadian developers, whose series has come a long way from tales of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad, were to make an AC IV announcement on 27 February. However, there has been no confirmation of an impending announcement and no statement either.

However, Kotaku's source's poster does corroborate comments from a Reddit user earlier this month, who wrote: "I was on a flight where the lady in the row in front of me was working on a Power Point presentation on marketing strategies of several gaming titles. And one that stood out the most was AC4: Black Flags. It already had a cool looking logo to it. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photo, just wanted to share it with all AC fans, and give those who are trying to figure out the next story line a little hint."

The poster leaked by Kotaku's source indicates Connor Kenway will not be the protagonist for the new series. And since the game developers have already confirmed the new game will feature different characters and a different time period, this gives us more reasons to believe this leaked poster is true, in general content if not specifics. The complete overhauling of the series is in line with similar decisions by Ubisoft for Assassin's Creed III, when they substituted Connor for Ezio Auditore.

Launch dates are, of course, still unknown. However, we do know it will be released sometime this fiscal year, probably around the 2013 holiday season. It will be hugely interesting, though, given the announcement of Sony's Playstation 4 and the expected announcement of the Microsoft Xbox 720 in April, to see if Ubisoft release only for the next-gen consoles or keep in mind the several thousands of fans on PS3 and Xbox 360, who may not be ready for the jump to the newer consoles.

Assassin's Creed III DLC

[Courtesy: Assassin's Creed/Ubisoft]

Meanwhile, Ubisoft has confirmed release dates for the three special episodes of the Tyranny of King Washington DLC for Assassin's Creed III. The downloadable series will be available for the PC, the PS3 and the Xbox simultaneously; the Nintendo Wii U launch has been delayed.

• The Tyranny of King Washington: The Infamy - 19 February

• The Tyranny of King Washington: The Betrayal - 19 March

• The Tyranny of King Washington: The Redemption: 23 April

IGN reports the storyline revolves around an alternate history in which George Washington crowns himself King. The player, as Connor, must dethrone Washington and restore political balance.