The question that wouldn’t die for the past few months has been the exclusivity of Assassin’s Creed to the PS3. For those of you that, unlike videogame bloggers, haven’t been following this story with bated breath, we’ll begin with a brief history of Assassin’s Creed, the latest stealth/action game by Ubisoft that was said to be an exclusive PS3 launch title.

More after the jump…

It all began when some gorgeous trailers purported to be running off the real-time graphics engine showed up at E3. The game features lush cityscapes from the Middle East with amazing looking fabric and crowd simulations. In fact, the game had so much promise that IGN.com called it “Game of Show” for the PS3. This game , many game sites said, would be a system-seller, a reason to own the PS3.

Interestingly, before the show a leaked release schedule was posted on the internet at GamePro.com. Ubisoft denied the authenticity of this document, which can be found here, but many of the release dates and games found on this list have since proved to be completely accurate, suggesting that this list IS indeed the real thing. Now why was this list of such interest you ask? Well, because it lists a game named Assassin (you can guess what it’s name changed to) as coming to not only the PS3, but also the Xbox 360, Revolution (now Wii) and the PSP. Assuming this was indeed true, then one of the key games in the PS3’s launch library might show up (and maybe even look just as good) on other systems, which would be a huge blow to Sony.

After E3, there were a lot of questions from the press, but when 1up.com questioned the company, the response from Ubisoft was what could be termed a non-denial denial:

1UP: Is Assassin’s Creed an exclusive title for the PS3 or is it only announced for the PS3?
Ubisoft: “Assassin’s Creed is coming to the PS3. No other announcements have been made.”

1UP: So it is not exclusive?
Ubisoft: “Assassin’s Creed is coming to the PS3. No other announcements have been made.”

That gets us up to present day, where now Playfuls.com is reporting that at the Interactive Digital Entertainment Festival in Cannes, Ubisoft “confirmed earlier suspicions” that Assassin’s Creed was indeed being developed for both the Xbox 360 and PC. But Kikizo is reporting that Ubisoft has not returned comment on this story, so where does this leave us now?

Who knows!

Still, it’s looking more and more like the leaked list from Ubisoft was indeed legitimate. And there are just too many sources to ignore claiming that an Xbox 360 version is in development. That still leaves the question of whether the game will be a “timed exclusive” launch (i.e., available for PS3 long before it’s available for any other system), or whether the game just flat-out won’t be exclusive. We’ll just have to wait and see, for now, if Ubisoft continues to keep its cards close to its chest.