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Assassin’s Creed 2 pre-orders up 10-20% over original

Analyst Mike Hickey of Janco Partners predicts that pre-orders for Assassin’s Creed 2 are up by 10 to 20% over the original. Ubisoft projected the original game to sell 3 million, but it sold a whopping 8 million copies to date. The analyst expect the sequel to outsell the original, which might be a tough task, considering Assassin’s Creed 2 is going heads to heads with Modern Warfare 2.

Ubisoft won’t release Assassin’s Creed 2 demo

Just like Activision won’t release a demo of the upcoming Modern Warfare 2, Ubisoft won’t release a demo of Assassin’s Creed 2 — the two games are the most anticipated launches this holiday season.

Sequels and games carrying established brands usually don’t carry demos, as players know what to expect, and in some instances, a pre-launch demo can lead to more harm than good, if it’s a lackluster title with a lackluster demo. Not that we imply Modern Warfare 2 or Assassin’s Creed 2 are lackluster titles.

New Assassin’s Creed 2 trailer

Ubisoft releases official box art for Assassin’s Creed 2

Ubisoft has recently gone ahead and released the official box art for their upcoming title Assassin’s Creed 2.

As you can tell, the box art is very similiar to that of the original game, let’s just hope the gameplay is a bit different. While the game was generally well receieved by critics, the main gripe gamers had with the game was that the gameplay was somewhat repetitive decreasing the game’s replay value.

Regardless of your opinion on the original Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft is gearing up to launch Assassin’s Creed 2 on November 19th for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

Assasin’s Creed 2 gets dated

Back in April Ubisoft let us know that Assassin’s Creed 2 would be hitting store shelves in time for this year’s holiday season but have kept generally quiet ever since.

Well today comes an announcement that Assassin’s Creed 2 will officially be available to American gamers on November 17th and European gamers on November 20th.

Given the generally good reception recieved by the first game Assassin’s Creed 2 is sure to please fans of the series.

Read (Kotaku)

Assassin’s Creed 2 Black Edition revealed

Ubisoft has revealed plans of a Collector’s Edition Assassin’s Creed 2, named “Black Edition”. Included with a copy of the game will be a 64-page concept art book, a “holographic” numbered game copy, a figurine of the main character and the soundtrack as well. If that’s not enough, the game will come packaged in a black box as well.

Ubisoft has revealed that it will price the Black Edition at 70 GBP, while the US pricing still has to be revealed.

450 people working on Assassin’s Creed 2

Ubisoft recently revealed that over 450 people are working on Assassin’s Creed 2 — that’s three times as many as on the original game. Game producer Sebastien Puel said that 75% of the people who worked on the original are also working on the sequel, and he noted that the original too four years to complete, one of the longer development cycles. Assassin’s Creed 2 will reportedly have a lot of the features that were meant to be in the first game, as the development team has more resources.

Assassin’s Creed 2 This Holiday

With the internet abuzz with hype for Assassin’s Creed 2, Ubisoft has announced that the sequel will arrive on “all current-generation platforms” this holiday season.

In development for over two years, the game is said to have “more variety in missions, surprising and engaging new gameplay elements, diverse weapons and a profound character progression," the company noted.

The game was officially revealed in the latest issue of Game Informer magazine.

Assassin’s Creed 2 main character unveiled?

If buzz circulating the internet is to be believed, what you are looking at above may very well be the main character featured in Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed 2 when it drops sometime next year.

The image was apparently grabbed from Ubisoft’s forums shortly before being pulled, but who is he? Well, Joystiq reports that included in leaked copies of next month’s Game Informer are more details regarding the mysterious hooded figure.

Ezio Auditore de Firenze, is his name, a nobleman from Florence in 1476. Leaked news also includes talks of swimming and gliding machines. We’ll have to wait until the next GameInformer actually comes out to fill in the blanks.

Assassin’s Creed 2 Teaser

Confirming that the game is indeed in development, Ubisoft has launched the official website for Assassin’s Creed 2. Although it is barren in terms of content, it does offer a brief tease.

Currently all parts of the site other than the weird Da Vinci wallpaper/video are off limits.

Assassin’s Creed 2 is not expected until next year. Ubisoft is yet to officially announce the game.