User blog comment:Aegis Runestone/Revelations and Brotherhood--Delay for AC3?/@comment-4705174-20120422175029/@comment-1888015-20120422202941

I bet it was more to just develop Ezio's character than it was to stall AC3's release.

It's not like there was a giant rush to produce AC3, considering they knew that they were going to take their time with the concept.

At least this way it gave some of the development team something to do instead of having them sit around with nothing, while the senior members of the franchise could mature the ideas for AC3 without a whole bunch of others to distract them.