Almost precisely one year to the day after Ubisoft announced a sequel to Assassin's Creed, their promised launch date has been shattered by rebellious retailers. Reports have come in about independent stores selling Assassin's Creed 2 as well as copies of Left 4 Dead 2, hours ahead of the sanctioned release time (tomorrow). This has supposedly caused a reaction from bigger chains like GameStop, who responded by releasing the games early as well – just as they did with Modern Warfare 2 in some regions.
Regardless of this, Ubisoft will likely have cause to celebrate as Assassin's Creed 2 is being released to high expectations, with early predictions of high volume sales. As a side note, those initial sales will be sourced exclusively from Xbox 360 and PS3 releases of the game, as the PC version isn't due for release until next year.
The same scenario surrounded the original game, with consoles getting a release several months before the PC. Eventually Ubisoft made it up to PC gamers by giving them PC exclusive content. That may not happen this time around, but PC gamers can always hope.