One of gaming's biggest annual franchises is taking a year off in 2019

• In 2019, Ubisoft is pausing its annual "Assassin's Creed" franchise.
• Instead of a new game, the company will give the franchise a rest after this year's launch of "Assassin's Creed Odyssey."
• Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot cited the company's previous decision to move its games away from annual sequels. Having more development time "gave the team the possibility to really bring what they wanted to" with "Assassin's Creed Origins" and "Odyssey," Guillemot told GameSpot.

One of the biggest annual game franchises in the world is taking 2019 off.

In 2017, Ubisoft launched "Assassin's Creed Origins." In 2018, Ubisoft is launching "Assassin's Creed Odyssey." But next year, there won't be a new "Assassin's Creed" game - a surprise given the franchise's usually annual launch schedule. 

"We had a game [in 2018] and we have one this year, but we are not going to have a full-fledged 'Assassin's' next year," Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told GameSpot in an interview this week. That includes spin-off games, according to Guillemot. 

Instead, Ubisoft is planing to expand upon the foundation set in place by "Odyssey" later this year.

"What you'll have is lots of content coming [to 'Odyssey']," Guillemot said. "The team really wants to give, on a regular basis, some new possibilities for play, so when you get in this year, you're going to get in for a couple of years."

It's a move that makes a lot of sense given Ubisoft's recent history. 

Instead of spending hundreds of millions of dollars developing major blockbusters, then hoping they sell enough at launch to turn a profit, Ubisoft has begun focusing on long-term support for its major blockbusters.

Games like "Rainbow Six Siege," seen above, have expanded dramatically since launch in 2015 - it continues to be massively popular, despite becoming available nearly three years ago. The same could be said for Ubisoft's "The Division," as well as "For Honor" - it's a smart strategy that Ubisoft has pioneered to great effect in the last several years.

And now, it sounds like that same strategy is being deployed with the massive "Assassin's Creed" series.

"Assassin's Creed Odyssey" is scheduled to arrive on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on October 5 - check out the game in action right here:

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