Assassin's Creed, the oh-sweet-mother-that's-purty darling of E3, has generated a lot of buzz, controversy, and rumors since the convention.

Why?

1. Oh, Sweet Mother, that's purty, and
2. It's been considered a PlayStation 3 exclusive

No. 1's not really at question, and #2 has been put to rest -- twice -- this week.

Ubisoft never said the game was a PS3 exclusive, and since they're the #2 worldwide third-paty publisher (aka, "The House that Tom Clancy Built"), single-platform offerings don't make a lot of sense for them (Red Steel for the Nintendo Wii is a notable -- and very cool -- exception).

Reported Wednesday, Assassin's Creed was at least going to see the PC light of day, but no mention was made of the Xbox 360 version.

Today Ubisoft announced the game is indeed coming to the firstborn of the next-gen consoles:

"SAN FRANCISCO – September 1, 2006 – Today Ubisoft, one
of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced that the version of its
new Assassin’s Creed™ franchise for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft will launch with the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system version of the game in early 2007."

And that's what the other news sites are basically reporting (uh, though I suppose I'm arguably nowhere near a "news" site; whatever) -- but there's an interesting nugget deeper in the press release:

"This title has not yet been concept approved by Sony Computer Entertainment
America."

Huh, so not only Assassin's Creed not a PS3 exclusive, but SCEA hasn't even officially agreed it'll be coming to their next-gen battle tank. I wonder if there was any dragging of feet that motivated Ubisoft to broaden their development focus (if they weren't going to do it anyway).

I'm stoked the game is coming to the Xbox 360.

Sweet Mother, that's purty ...