Developing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was "very difficult and even nightmarish," game director Ashraf Ismail has said. Ismail's comments came during a Reddit AMA session today, where Ismail was asked about the development process for the Xbox One and PlayStation versions.

　　"Development on both consoles was very smooth since they are both very similar to PCs," Ismail said of Xbox One and PS4. "Last generation was very difficult and even nightmarish."

　　Ismail explained that both the Xbox One and PS4 were "easy to deal with" for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and Microsoft and Sony were "there to help us out" throughout the process.

　　Development on the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag wasn't all smooth sailing, however.

　　"The one gray area was understanding both Sony and MS requirements for the consoles," Ismail said. "They were trying to figure them out themselves."

　　"They do understand them NOW," Ismail explained later. "One year ago as they were still trying to push features and tech it wasn't so clear. And this is normal."

　　Outside of these issues, "Overall it was super smooth to develop on [next generation consoles]," he said.

　　"Best game development experience of my career. Team was great, production was the smoothest I've ever seen, no one got burned doing overtime and super proud of the result! Its been absolutely wonderful," Ismail added. "2.5 years to make a game is perfect! Longer than 3 years can start wearing a person down."

　　Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag launched last week for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U. The PC version arrives November 19, between the PS4 version (November 15) and the Xbox One iteration (November 22).

　　For more on Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, check out GameSpot's review.

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