Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is doing more than drawing attention at the box office. According to the report, the film has also sent a wave of players back to Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, creating a clear bump in engagement for the 2018 game.
Data cited from Alinea Analytics analyst Rhys Elliot suggests the game’s active user base has nearly doubled over the past week across PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam on PC. Xbox saw the sharpest rise, climbing from 36,000 daily active users to 84,000, which amounts to a 134% increase. Ubisoft appears to have benefited from the timing as well, since Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is currently available through Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus, making it easy for subscribers to jump in without paying extra.
Elliot noted that while software sales have only moved modestly, with around 400,000 copies sold year-to-date, the bigger story is renewed player engagement. That, he said, could help Ubisoft build a case for a future remake or resynced version of Odyssey. He also pointed to Ubisoft’s own response, including timed social media campaigns around Nolan’s film release and a renewed push for Discovery Tour, the game’s combat-free educational mode, as a way to catch the attention of moviegoers curious about Ancient Greece.
The renewed interest makes sense given how closely the game lines up with the film’s setting and themes. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is one of Ubisoft’s biggest and most expansive entries in the series, with a large open world, historical figures, myths, and legends woven into its story. It also pushed the franchise further into RPG territory, a shift that won over many players even if it divided longtime fans who preferred the earlier, more compact style of the series.
With more than 10 million copies sold in its first two years, Odyssey remains one of the most successful Assassin’s Creed titles. Its lead character, Kassandra, has also stayed popular enough to reappear in later games. The report also notes that fans should not expect the movie and game stories to overlap directly, since Nolan’s film is set around 800 years earlier. Even so, both follow an outcast traveling the Greek islands by ship, facing armies and other threats while trying to reclaim their family.
Source: ign.com
