The first Assassin’s Creed came to the unsuspecting gaming public in 2007 and it hasn’t left the gamer consciousness since. This November, in the wake of the recent release of Call of Duty: Black Ops, Ubisoft is going to come to market with the most recent full-game in this series. An interesting move especially because Black Ops has already garnered a huge amount of fame and, unlike movies, blockbuster video games rely on players being able to peel themselves away from another game to get drawn into a new one.

However, Ubisoft isn’t concerned—Assassin’s Creed has done exceedingly well in the past and will do well this time. Plus, why delay the inevitable? November 16^th is their common release date, in fact the last title came out exactly a year ago that date, and they don’t see a reason to change it.

The “year ago” part, in fact, itself is an interesting development. As seen with the Halflife series, many video game publishers have been trying to come to market with one big game and then a series of smaller, add-ons. Whereas, what we’re looking at with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is an entire game into itself and not just a new episode. VentureBeat spoke with Tony Key, the senior vice president of marketing for Ubisoft to ask about this new rapid development cycle.

Although the last big Assassin’s Creed game launched just a year ago, Key said the company was able to gather the resources of more than 500 game developers across four studios and crank out a new title this year. Full told, the Brotherhood team took two years to make the game. But since it used an existing, battle-tested game engine originally developed for Assassin’s Creed, the team is able to work quickly.

“The model is changing for the game industry,” Key said. “This isn’t a matter of time. It’s a resource issue. If you put enough resources into the making of a major game, you can get it out in a year.”

Anticipation is extremely high. Assassin’s Creed is an extremely fun game and while Call of Duty may attract a lot of attention (and money) it’s unlikely the recent release will dampen much of the gusto of AC players.

Of course, Ubisoft also says they don’t have much concern, as pre-orders of Assassin’s Creed are already up—and ahead of expectations. They have even prepared themselves by fully stocking the game for shipping to shelves on the first day (tomorrow) which should give first-day sales a strong boost. According to a spokesperson for Ubisoft, pre-order sales are up by 25 percent over last year.

If you’re into the Italian Renaissance, lots of extremely gorgeous vistas of cluttered streets, cheek-and-jowl Italian architecture, and slipping stealthily through shadows with murderous intent; then this game will probably not disappoint you. And, looking at market expectations, if the first round find it satisfactory it will probably find itself flying off the shelves.