To say the current timeline and family-tree for Assassin's Creed is convoluted would be an understatement. The series' 2007 release left many unanswered questions for gamers, almost non of which were broached in its sequel, or said sequels own offshoots. Instead, even more questions have been raised, and Ubisoft are left with something of a complex narrative mess to clean up.

They're up to the task though, and revealed recently to Eurogamer that they plan on tying up most of the series' loose ends before the end of 2012, which, incidentally, is a key year in the game's deeply rich story, specifically for Desmond Miles.

"In Assassin's Creed we set up a timeline with this whole end of the world plot of December 2012," said creative lead, Alexandre Amacio, when talking to the site.

"That's fast approaching, and the story we have to tell, we obviously need to do it before we arrive at that point."

"It would be stupid of us to be centring a game on a semi-reality and then have that conclusion happen after that date in real life," he added.

The chat with Amacio also revealed the team would be moving on to an all-new lead and storyline with future additions to the series, and that the one year turn-around for development of AC games would also change thanks to a restructuring of development cycles at Ubisoft Montreal.

"Assassin's Creed is all about cycles - we have the Ezio cycle and the Altair cycle, and both of those are set to conclude in Revelations and we have the Desmond cycle, which is set to end on December 2012," he continued. "But there's many cycles within the brand - that's the whole point. History is our playground."

Assassin's Creed: Revelations is due to release on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC this November.