Ubisoft Toronto (Jade Raymond's Studio) begins collaboration on future AC game
http://www.polygon.com/2013/3/27/4154984/ubisoft-toronoto-starts-collabo...
From what we know of the dev cycle at the moment, I'd wager that this game is the next next next game (ACVI)
I'd wager that this game is the next next next game (ACVI)
We're going to need a bigger forum. 
It may be a good sign that AC1 lovers are working on the games post-AC3. Now we learn that Patrice and Jade are back (Patrice isn't at the moment, but he's at least back at Ubisoft).
Wait - I thought Patrice Desole was working at THQ. Until that got bankrupted. So I guess he's back at Ubisoft?
From what I've been able to glean from interviews, many of the AC1 team have been with the series the whole time. It is nice that Patrice and Jade are back on the series, though both of them have always been involved in more of a management/production capacity. (not that managers and producers don't help improve the quality of the game, or are not important!)
Sure, most of the AC team have been working with each AC release. However, after ACII, they split. One half went on to work Brotherhood and Revelations, while the other half went to work with ACIII. Not sure how who's working on ACIV...
THQ got bought buy Ubisoft, didn't they? At least THQ Montreal did, which is where he was working.
Yes, THQ Montreal was bought by Ubi. Vesferatu, The article specifically states that Ubisoft Toronto is collaborating with Ubisoft Montreal. I believe Montreal is their biggest studio. It consists of more than just the Black Flag team, and anyways at this point they would be deliberating on the gameplay mechanics, setting, and general mission statement of the game, as well as continuing to develop technology to expedite the development process.
Not something that would require a huge team just yet, especially if they have help from Toronto.
Black Flag is being developed by Ubi Sofia, no?
Black Flag is being developed by parts of pretty much every Ubisoft studio, with Montreal being the biggest team, as usual. Ubisoft Sofia is nowhere near big enough to handle that on their own.
It is being developed by nearly 1000 people in total at the moment, and has been in development since 2011.
The way these projects work, people come on and off teams and transfer to different projects as they're needed. It's not a case of there being one studio per game, rather most studios have some people working on all the games that are in development.
For example, as AC3 development began winding down, members of the AC3 team began transferring to the black flag team, and certain members were in fact working on both black flag and AC3 in conjunction.
It's a very complex development structure, and it must be a nightmare to keep it coordinated. However, Black Flag seems to be a testament to how well they have the system planned out, since they were able to get such a large lead time on development.
If they maintain this, AC may continue to evolve and improve as a yearly series, rather than stagnating as was observed in Revelations. (In my opinion, 3 was already a step in the right direction, though of course it wasn't perfect. Gave me that AC2 feel of everything being new again.)