The grand scale on which Assassin’s Creed III is being developed is only possible because of the franchise having an yearly release, the game’s creative director Alex Hutchinson has said.

Hutchinson told Eurogamer that AC III’s development started at the same time as Brotherhood way back in 2010, before development work on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations even began.

“The core team on this one has been working at it for almost three years, which is something you can almost never get in the industry these days – it’s too expensive, too risky.

“So we need the other projects to support that kind of development – these big jumps.”

Hutchinson didn’t give a straight answer when asked if the franchise tradition of releasing a new Assassin’s Creed title every year will follow after AC III’s release, saying that the studio’s “become much better at planning forward in the franchise so we have ideas.”

“But we also know players love new characters and radical changes so we’re still figuring a few things out. I don’t know. I think it would be kind of neat at some point to say ‘Connor is a character, he lived in this big epic game, that’s his story’, instead of trying to drag it out too much.

“But then again, it took up 18 months in terms of casting actors, building 20 or 30 versions of the outfit… just working on all these things to get it right, so it’s not something you can do quickly.”

Assassin’s Creed III will be releasing worldwide on October 30 for PC, PS3, Xbox 360. A Wii U version is also in development.