Animal Crossing spiritual successor seemingly on the way from Assassin's Creed publisher

When we think of Animal Crossing, we don’t tend to think of Assassin’s Creed at the same time.

Yet those two different worlds are due to collide. Well, kind of. And by kind of, I mean extremely loosely.

Ubisoft is putting away its knives to create an Animal Crossing-style experience, codenamed Alterra.

According to Insider Gaming, the Assassin’s Creed publisher has been toiling with this new title for approximately 18 months.

What is more, it came into existence after a previous project utilising voxel creation was unfortunately scrapped.

Waste not, want not.

Imagine this, but from Ubisoft, and maybe some Assassin's Creed weaponry - we don't know, it just sounds cool.

Although Ubisoft has already dedicated resources and time to the project, Alterra isn’t ready for release.

Furthermore, it’s unlikely it will be for the next several years.

As discovered on Ubisoft’s Fabien Lhéraud LinkedIn, Alterra is described as a “next-gen project”.

Saying something is next-gen is such a vague description.

Still, whenever Alterra is ready to go, players will interact with NPCs called Matterlings.

These Matterlings are said to be similar to Funko Pop’s in design, while the gameplay is rumoured to be akin to Minecraft.

It sounds like a Frankenstein’s monster project right now, with different ideas cherry-picked from other publishers.

Hopefully as Alterra progresses, Ubisoft’s final vision for the title will become much clearer and unique.

Ubisoft has our attention though, for it feels like such a stark contrast to its usual style of games.

Who knows, we could end up pleasantly surprised by this Animal Crossing rival. It could even be better than Animal Crossing, though that sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud.

Alterra is one we’ll be keeping an eye on over the coming months. When we learn more of the project, we’ll be sure to let you know.