New Delhi, July 13 -- SAN FRANCISCO - The comeback the gaming industry had mostly stopped expecting from Ubisoft arrived on July 9, when Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced sold 2 million copies on its first day of release. No Ubisoft game has reached that milestone at launch in years. The number was not the most striking part.

Black Flag, which launched in 2013. Thirteen years is a long time for a franchise to go without matching its own best work. This rebuild, developed by Vantage Studios and led by Ubisoft Singapore, apparently managed it.

Black Flag Resynced is not a simple graphical upgrade of the 2013 open-world pirate adventure. It was rebuilt entirely using Ubisoft's latest Anvil engine, with a reworked combat system centered ...