As Ubisoft released their latest financial report CEO Yves Guillemot was asked whether Assassin's Creed 2 was set to arrive in fiscal 2010 (April 2009 - March 2010)
"We're not answering that question. What we just can say is that we are working hard on the product."
It is widely expected that the sequel to Ubisoft's biggest commercial success ever will be available in time for the holidays 2009. On a related note, analyst Michael Pachter told Giant Bomb that he knew for a fact that the game would take place several hundred years after the original, more specifically during the 18th century. He then speculated that the French Revolution would be the setting for Assassin's Creed.
While the Middle Eastern setting during the crusades (1191) was mostly a crucial part of what made the original successful - Ubisoft have free hands to change the setting for the sequel given the controversial "future" angle they adopted for the series.It is a reasonable assumption that we will learn more about Assassin's Creed 2 in the coming months or perhaps at the next Ubidays (Ubisoft's annual games event in Paris).