Ubisoft has certainly been pushing pirates lately. Catching on the buccaneer theme of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the publisher even brought a real pirate ship and pirates cosplayers to this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Among the different previews for Black Flag one element has stood out as being included in nearly every trailer: sea battles. A large part of the next Assassin’s Creed game will be battling the British and other forces on the high seas to upgrade the protagonist’s ship, the Jackdaw. Ubisoft is so enamored of the sea battles it has created for Black Flag that it is now bringing that ship-to-ship combat to mobile platforms.
Ubisoft today at its Digital Days event announced Assassin’s Creed: Pirates, an Assassin’s Creed game for smartphones and tablets. The game will put players in the shoes of Alonzo Batilla, allowing them to sail the caribbean and engage in ship battles. Winning nets players “legendary treasure” and allows them to level up their ships with better parts, new crew members, and heavier weapons (cannons, mortars, and swivel guns were mentioned in the announcement).
Characters from Black Flag will be making cameos in Pirates, and Ubisoft even teased that the long battle between Templars and Assassins will be at play in the title. A firm release date for Assassin’s Creed: Pirates has not been announced, though Ubisoft expects to release the game on mobile platforms sometime this fall.