Case Study: Assassins Creed 3: Liberation

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Genre: Action-Adventure

Avatar: Focuses on the life of African-French Assassin Aveline de Grandpre. There are three persons: the Assassin, the Lady and the Slave. There are differences between their navigational skills, strength, speed and blending options.

World: This was set in 18th century New Orleans (towards the end of the French and Indian War. The game takes place in open world and is presented in the third person perspective.

Goal: The goal of the game is to stop the Templars gaining control over 18th century New Orleans, which leads her to seeking out and eliminating the mysterious leader of the group in their operations.

Multiplayer: This consists of players tapping nodes on maps, using different characters to capture bases and collect supplies.

INDUSTRY 
Ownership and Franchise
The publisher of Assassin's Creed 3 Liberation is Ubisoft. Ubisoft Entertainment SA is a French video game company headquartered in Montreuil. It has published several games such as Assassin's Creed, Rayman, Just Dance etc. As of March 2018, Ubisoft is the largest publicly traded game company in the Americas and Europe in terms of revenue and market capitalisation.

Assassin's Creed is an action-adventure stealth video game franchise created by Patrice Désilets, Jade Raymond and Corey May. It was developed and published by Ubisoft. It is inspired by the novel Almut written by Slovenian writer Vladmir Bartol. The first game was released in 2007 and has featured 11 main games in total, the most recent being 2018 Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Production/Distribution/Format
Assassin's Creed was released on: 
PlayStation Vita in October 2012
Liberation HD PlayStation 3 in January 2014
Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in January 2014
Liberations Remastered PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in March 2019
The game was released in North America, Europe, Australasia and Japan.
The game is only available in psychical form which means you can't play online and have to buy the game.


Marketing and Advertising 
How was game advertised ( trailers, posters, articles etc.) and what elements of the game/format were featured and focused upon and why?

Reception

There were mixed reviews for Assassin's Creed. Based on 71 reviews, the game scored 70/100. Shaun Mclnnis, a reviewer for GameSpot, gave the game a score of 6.5/10. He praised the protagonist as "...a woman born from the romance between a wealthy father and a slave mother, someone who has overcome her uncertain upbringing to find a new life in the Assassin Brotherhood". He also praised the setting and writing. However. one fault he found was that the game "squanders its most unique ideas...Liberation takes little advantage of its own narrative format" and that the plot is "largely aimless and hastily delivered".

Regulation
Summarise the role of the organisation responsible for regulating the game's content and giving it a relevant age rating.
The game received an 18 rating from PEGI due to violent content that is seen as gross as certain acts may be sen as horrific methods of killing.


Consider the impact of digitally convergent media platforms on global production, distribution and circulation:
It is significant that the Assassin’s Creed III:
Liberation hand held game could be linked to the full PS3 console version of the game (owning both versions would unlock additional game content). This use of convergence is relevant in terms of promotion/marketing and circulation.
The internet/Wi-Fi functionality of the PS Vita allows users opportunities to download additional content (DLC) such as weapons, characters and “skins” or outfits.It also affords users the chance to engage in multiplayer versions of the game. These features promote gamer engagement and identification with the game.

Convergence - The merging of multiple media forms into one platform - Assassin's Creed being available on different devices.