Game design head Tim Browne has confirmed to the Examiner that this will be the first multiplayer engine change since Brotherhood.
Browne said: “We’ve had the same engine since Brotherhood, and for this year we integrated a new engine that works on current gen and next-gen consoles. Then we did upscaled, specific development for next-gen, so the character models are four times higher textures and polygons than the normal ones. There are very specific next-gen features which we’re catering for as well, which you won’t have on current gen. Not just graphical improvements, but certain other things.”
Assassins's Creed IV: Black Flag is scheduled to be released October 29, 2013 in North America, October 31 in Australia, November 1 in Europe and November 28 in Japan on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Wii U and PC.