New Assassin's Creed with 'multiplayer mode' due by April 2011

Well, this is a shock. According to a recent financial release from Ubisoft, we can expect a new "episode" of Assassin's Creed within the company's next fiscal year, starting April 2010. That includes this year. Want another shock? It's going to have an "online multiplayer mode." Considering the second in the series has already moved six million units, it's not a huge surprise, but this does seem pretty darn fast.

Now before you get too excited, this doesn't necessarily mean we'll be getting Assassin's Creed 3 by next April -- the release stops short of applying a number, and the use of the word "episode" leads us to wonder if this will be some kind of DLC add-on [Update: Gamasutra says it was told by Ubisoft that the note in the release "refers specifically to an entirely new game and not content associated with AC2."] Heck, there's not even a platform mentioned. We're contacting Ubisoft for clarification as we speak.