There's no big new Assassin's Creed game this year - instead, Valhalla instead lives on through expansions set in Ireland and France - but that doesn't mean Ubisoft's biggest franchise is taking a breather. Quite the opposite, in fact.

For fans, 2021 will see the series' broadest collection yet of books, manga, webtoons and audios arrive from a wide range of creative partners across the world, expanding the franchise further via characters old and new. And beyond that? Well, there's under-wraps plans at Netflix for an animated series and live-action show, too.

This week, Ubisoft will detail eight projects to be published this year - more on all those below - and a new system of categorising future stories published under the Assassin's Creed umbrella; Classics are direct adaptations of video games, Chronicles feature new stories with returning Assassins, while Originals offer all-new protagonists and time periods.

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Ashraf Ismail, creative director of several Assassin's Creed games, has been formally fired by Ubisoft following an investigation into allegations of misconduct.

Ubisoft Montreal colleagues were told the news yesterday via an internal email obtained by Kotaku.

"Following an investigation by an external firm, it was determined that Ashraf's employment with Ubisoft had to be terminated," the message read. "We cannot provide any details about this confidential investigation."

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Ubisoft has named an all-star cast for Assassin's Creed: Gold, a new audio drama series coming exclusively to Audible.

Star Wars: Rogue One's Riz Ahmed and Buffy's Anthony Head join No Offence's Tamara Lawrance and long-time Assassin's Creed voice actor Danny Wallace in an all new story for the franchise.

As detailed by Syfy, Gold will tell a tale of murder and politics set in both Isaac Newton's 17th-century Britain and today.

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In an extended blog post that reads like a first year philosophy student essay, Valve has been debating what counts as a Steam review bomb. With itself.

The company's confusion was prompted by the recent surge in positive reviews for Assassin's Creed: Unity, which Ubisoft made available for free on Uplay in the aftermath of the Notre Dame fire (along with donating €500,000 to help with restoration efforts). Naturally, the move was incredibly popular with players, and despite its free release on a different platform prompted a spike in player reviews on Steam.

But does this count as a review bomb, and if so, should Valve prohibit it as it has in the past?

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Assassin's Creed Unity is currently getting the review-bomb treatment on Steam - but this time it's a little different.

This week Ubisoft gave Unity away for free for a limited time following the devastating fire at the Notre-Dame de Paris, and donated half a million euros to the restoration effort.

Unity is of course set in Paris, 1789 amid the French Revolution, and features a virtual reconstruction of the famous medieval Catholic cathedral.

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Ubisoft has announced that, following Monday's devastating fire which caused extensive damage to Notre-Dame cathedral, it will be donating €500,000 to Paris' reconstruction efforts. And as an additional gesture, Assassin's Creed Unity is currently free on PC.

"As the smoke clears on the events that unfolded on Monday at the Notre-Dame de Paris," Ubisoft wrote on its blog, "we stand in solidarit with our fellow Parisians and everyone around the world moved by the devastation the fire caused. Notre-Dame is an integral part of Paris, a city to which we are deeply connected. Seeing the monument in peril like this affected us all."

To that end, the publisher has pledged to donate €500,000 to help with the restoration and reconstruction of Paris' historic landmark, and has encouraged interested fans to donate too.

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The Assassin's Creed comic series has just reached a moment in the franchise's overall story which fans have long awaited - a point the series' plot arc has been building to for nearly a decade.

(If you're not up to date on the Assassin's Creed games up to Syndicate, beware spoilers below.)

Back in 2016, Ubisoft and Titan Comics revealed that the First Civilisation plotline which featured in multiple Assassin's Creed games would instead "culminate" in a new series of graphic novels.

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Ubisoft delved into the "perfect conditions for the perfect storm" behind 2014's Assassin's Creed Unity's launch issues.

As part of the talk '10 Years of Evolution of the Assassin's Creed Brand' at GDC 2018, creative director Jean Guesdon explained how Ubisoft iterated on each game as it built the franchise.

Unity started development in 2011, after work on Brotherhood had finished, and was designed to be the first real next-gen game for then upcoming consoles PS4 and Xbox One.

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Assassin's Creed Rogue (aka Black Flag 2) is getting a remastered launch for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

All DLC missions and weapon packs will be included, along with a new outfit - the one worn by Assassin's Creed Oranges hero Bayek in last year's new game.

There's 4K support if you're on a PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X (alternatively, it runs at 1080p on PS4 and Xbox One).

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PC players can download the excellent Assassin's Creed: Black Flag for free next week, as part of Ubisoft's Happy Playdays seasonal promotion.

If you fancy downloading the rip-roaring, piratical high seas adventure (which I still reckon is the best Assassin's Creed game, but then I'm easily swayed a peg leg and a palm tree), it'll be available between Monday December 11th and Monday December 18th.

If you're after a more immediate freebie, however, Ubisoft is also giving away a PC copy of alternate-history RTS World in Conflict, plus its single-player Soviet Assault expansion, right now. You've got until December 11th to grab it.

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