Assassin’s Creed III DLC includes evil despot George Washington

Ubisoft has revealed an upcoming Assassin's Creed III DLC pack that explores an alternate history where George Washington is crowned king.

This morning, publisher Ubisoft issued an email press release about the upcoming Assassin’s Creed III. Ostensibly, the goal of the PR burst was to herald the upcoming arrival of the Assassin’s Creed III season pass, which, when purchased by players, will grant them discounted access to five future downloadable additions the company has planned for the title. Supposedly this was to be an exciting announcement, but it’s become a pretty common scheme among blockbuster game releases, so while we’re happy to see a relatively inexpensive alternative to purchasing the game’s DLC piecemeal, we’re not exactly calling our friends and loved ones to trumpet this revelation.

However, alongside the announcement of the season pass, Ubisoft also dropped a surprisingly substantial amount of information on an upcoming single-player DLC pack for Assassin’s Creed III that it alternately calls “The Tyranny of King George” and “The Tyranny of King Washington.” Regardless of what this thing is actually called, it’s “an all-new single-player campaign told through three episodic content packs” that explores what might have happened if George Washington, America’s first president, had opted to accept the position of king over the newly emancipated colonies, instead of deciding that no one man should wield that much power and opting toward the role of president.

Ubisoft’s official description is slightly darker:

As the revolution comes to a close, a new and most unexpected enemy emerges. Driven by the desire to secure the fate of the colonies, the greatest hero of the revolution, George Washington, succumbs to the temptation of infinite power. The new King is born and his reign leaves no one untouched. To return freedom to the land our new hero must dethrone a tyrant he once called friend.

Would anyone care to wager  on the likelihood that “dethrone” in this case is a synonym for “stab in the throat?”

Whatever direction Ubisoft takes this in should be interesting, even if you don’t end up murdering a man who has come to symbolize everything that’s good and right about the American ideal. Historians have been debating what might result from this very scenario for decades, and the massive changes it might entail compared to our own historical timeline can very quickly spiral out to a mind-boggling degree. 

Assuming you’re suddenly pumped for this thought-experiment-turned-gameplay-concept, the good news is that the entire thing can be yours with that aforementioned season pass for only $30. If you’re really, really pumped about it, you can even pre-order the pass at Gamestop and Best Buy. As for when that investment will see dividends, Ubisoft is a bit coy on the subject. While it does point out that season pass holders will be saving 25 percent compared to those who buy the DLC individually, and that season pass holders will have access to upcoming DLC packs a full week before everyone else, it also states that the pass “releases within six months after the game launch.” So expect to see something for your extra cash — that $30 is, of course, in addition to the $60 you’ve already spent on Assassin’s Creed III — sometime between the game’s launch on October 30 (November 18 on Wii U and November 20 on PC) and May of 2013.