Ubisoft have announced that the next instalment of the Assassin's Creed series will be titled Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The game will revolve around piracy on the high seas and the developers also announced 60 exclusive minutes of content for PS3 users.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will be released across all major platforms - PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and the PC. Interestingly, there was no mention of Sony's newly announced PlayStation 4 in yesterday's statements.

Further details, including screenshots and videos are expected after the weekend, which is also when price and release dates are to be revealed. However, we do know the game will be released sometime this fiscal year... and given Ubisoft's release policy, a late-2013 (holiday season, maybe) release is likely; Assassin's Creed 3, for example, released in October.

The new game, according to an earlier report by the Examiner, will take place off the coast of Caribbean islands; specifically, the southern tip of Florida, Cuba and the Bahamas. And for the first time in the series, gamers are likely to jump eras after just one game.

The first few games in the series began with the adventures of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad and continued seamlessly into the life of Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Assassin's Creed III jumped across the Atlantic and was set during the American Revolution and, in a similar vein, AC IV is expected to leave Connor Kenway behind and offer a new protagonist. The interesting bit, though, is that it is likely to be Connor's grandfather - Edward Kenway.

Should that be true, and given that the most famous of pirates lived and operated between 1500 and 1700, it is entirely possible Edward and Connor could come face to face in AC IV.

The previous instalment of the game - Assassin's Creed III - had a very strong opening, doubling sales of Assassin's Creed II, and beating Assassin's Creed: Revelations by 117,000 copies in its launch week. Ubisoft is expecting Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag to trump its predecessor's sales figure.

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