Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is an open-world action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U on October 29, 2013, for the PlayStation 4 (as a launch title) on November 15, 2013, for the PC on November 19, 2013, and for the Xbox One (also as a launch title) on November 22, 2013.
The sixth main installment of the Assassin's Creed series (and the sequel to Assassin's Creed III), players control an unknown Abstergo employee (in the year 2013, one year after the events of the previous game) who must sift through the memories of Edward Kenway (a notorious and reckless early-18th century privateer-turned-Assassin and the grandfather of Connor Kenway) after the genetic memory of Assassin Desmond Miles was uploaded into the Abstergo servers.
These memories (inside the Animus) take place in the year 1715 throughout the Caribbean and the southern coast of Florida. Edward, as an experienced pirate, travels through the dangerous Caribbean Sea in a major open-world naval experience (including engaging passing ships, surviving tropical storms, fishing/whaling, and exploring distant islands). Other pirates in the game are based on real, realistic pirates (rather than the comedic tropes associated with the era), featuring the famous Blackbeard. Other pirates named include Charles Vane, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, Ben Hornigold, and a different take on the now-famous Jack Sparrow. A focus upon real-world occurrences, just as in previous games, will be a primary motivation for the narrative - including Bartholomew Roberts' assault on 42 Portuguese ships, the marooning of Charles Vane, and the Spanish Armada shipwreck.
Development began in the summer of 2011 by an entirely new team, as the game was being penned by the scriptwriter of Assassin's Creed: Revelations.
The game shipped on both current and next gen consoles, with PS3 and PS4 versions including "60 minutes of exclusive gameplay" featuring Aveline de Grandpre from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. Despite these claims of exclusivity, this content is also available on PC.
