Ubisoft is issuing an update for Assassin's Creed Syndicate tomorrow, more than seven years after the action-adventure game's release. It's rare for single-player games to receive continued support over the years, but Ubisoft is unique in that regard. Assassin's Creed is a massively popular franchise and fans revisit older games in the series constantly. Assassin's Creed Syndicate may not be one of the biggest Assassin's Creed releases, but Ubisoft still wants it to be playable and fun on current platforms.Assassin's Creed Syndicate launched in 2015, a follow-up to 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity. This was well after the conclusion of the original Assassin's Creed trilogy with Ezio Auditore, with Ubisoft seeking a new status quo for the franchise. Unfortunately, it would also be the peak of Assassin's Creed fatigue and disappointing sales would lead to a relatively short pause between releases, with Assassin's Creed Origins then arriving in 2017. Despite Assassin's Creed Syndicate being one of the franchise's most awkward releases, Ubisoft still wants it to be widely available in 2023 and beyond. That's why it's going to issue a patch for the game on February 23 to address a significant technical issue. The PlayStation 4 version of Assassin's Creed Syndicate currently has a "flickering issue" when played on PlayStation 5, which some have said makes the game unplayable. The new update should solve that problem.
It doesn't seem that Ubisoft has any other plans for tomorrow's Assassin's Creed Syndicate update, which it's calling Title Update 1.53. There's no mention of any other changes, fixes, or otherwise. That perhaps conveys just how significant of an issue the PlayStation 5 flickering is, though if it is such a notable problem then it isn't clear why Ubisoft hasn't fixed the problem earlier. There could be some unwritten changes, though.
The last time that Assassin's Creed Syndicate received an update was around six years ago. Title Update 1.52, delivered in early 2017, addressed stability issues. Prior changes to that focused on PlayStation 4 Pro improvements and stability. It's only worth mentioning to make clear that Assassin's Creed Syndicate is long past its time of active support. It may have taken this long to fix the game on PS5 because no one at Ubisoft had worked on the game in years.
What ultimately matters is that starting tomorrow Assassin's Creed Syndicate should run smoothly on PlayStation 5. It will allow owners of Sony's newest console to revisit a somewhat less fondly remembered part of Assassin's Creed's history, and to play a key part of the series' story. Ubisoft may not be able to do that as Assassin's Creed continues to grow generation by generation, but it's great that it's able to continue doing so now.
Assassin's Creed Syndicate is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.