User blog comment:Master Sima Yi/Assassinews 05-08-'14 – Assassin's Creed: Rogue announced/@comment-5174994-20140830202557/@comment-5019018-20140830220845

Because I don't like the idea of the games being linked to each other. I prefer them being relatively independent. An Al Mualim game would only serve to provide exposition for Assassin's Creed, and we'd get obligatory Altaïr cameos. AC4 is an exception, as it was relatively separate from AC3, and you could play one without playing the other.

A book would be fine, and frankly, Ubisoft needs to step up their game on that front. Why they can't release several non-game products (such as comics and novels) throughout the year is beyond me. Just releasing a slam of products at the end of the year is quite boring.

Also, Kain's point that we're getting two games on the same day is also valid.