Screenshots of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's modern era leaked

It’s no secret that every Assassin’s Creed game covers two eras—the subject era of the past, like Renaissance-era Italy in Assassin’s Creed 2, and the modern era that covers Desmond’s own story. Thanks to AllGamesBeta, screenshots of the modern era that will be featured in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag have been leaked. The screenshots show the interiors of an Abstergo building. Going by the text on the screenshots, however, the modern-era world still seems to be a work-in-progress.

Back in June, the game’s Director Ashraf Ismail had told Eurogamer that Desmond will no longer be the lead character, which doesn’t come as a surprise considering the ending of Assassin’s Creed 3. “The hero is yourself,” Ismail had said. “You’re working for Abstergo Entertainment, and you’re using the Animus technology. You’re a research analyst, and you don’t know why, but you’re told to research the life of this guy Edward Kenway.”
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“The feeling and the mood of the present day will be a big surprise for people,” he added. “Imagine when you exit that [Animus] workstation, you have this building that you can explore and you can find stuff. So we really push it. For us, that part is an homage to our fans.”

More recently, Ismail revealed to Eurogamer that Assassin’s Creed won’t be an endless franchise. Despite the franchise’s yearly schedule, every game fits into a big overall story arc that will invariable end.

“We have multiple development teams, then we have the brand team that sits on top and is filled with writers and designers concerned with the series’ overall arc,” Ismail explained. “So there is an overall arc, and each iteration has its place inside this.

“We have an idea of where the end is, what the end is. But of course Yves [Guillemot, Ubisoft’s overall boss] announced we are a yearly title, we ship one game a year. So depending on the setting, depending on what fans want, we’ve given ourselves room to fit more in this arc. But there is an end.”

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is all set for a November launch and will be hitting PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game will also be making its way to the PC at a later date.