Assassin's Creed III devs have "nothing against" the British
Despite the pro-Colonial tone of previous trailers, Ubisoft Montreal is not anti-British
Assassin's Creed III developer Ubisoft Montreal has been accused by some of having an anti-British bias in its current marketing efforts. Though the larger context of the games is still the ongoing war between the Assassin and Templar factions, released media has focused on Templars on the British side. Assassin's Creed III lead scriptwriter Corey May told CVG that English fans should calm down, as the story is "not meant to be loyalists versus patriots".
"It's assassins versus Templars. There's a revolution going on and Connor will experience all facets of it. It's not as simple as Templars backing the crown and assassins backing the patriots, it's really two factions at war against the backdrop of another war. I have nothing against the Brits," explained May. May framed the historical conflict in a different light to illustrate his point.
"It occurs against the backdrop of the Revolutionary war. And to be even more evasive, everyone back then was a Brit, this was not Americans against British - this was a British civil war," he said.
"There's a great story that they tell of Ben Franklin and his son William and they wind up on separate sides. His son became a loyalist. When the war was over or as the war was wrapping up, his son tried to make amends, but Franklin didn't want anything to do with him and they became estranged. I think it hurt his son and his son felt terrible."
"When Franklin died, in his will he said 'you get nothing. Had you won you would've taken away everything of mine, so either way you would have had nothing, so you get nothing'. I think his son was devastated and it's just not as simple, even if sometimes it is portrayed that way," he continued.
GamesIndustry International previously spoke with University of California Santa Cruz Assistant Professor of History Gregory O'Malley on how Assassin's Creed III could tell an interesting story without favoring a single side. The game is scheduled to be released for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, and PC on October 30, 2012 in North America (Oct. 31 in Europe).