Japan WOULD have been really awesome. But I don't see how that was "obvious," I guess (Don't get me wrong, I wanted it too!). I figured we might get America, though, simply because of where Revelations ended. The protagonists are pretty much exactly where they need to be geographically to wrap up the current story without traveling across the world. I can only hope we get a game set in Japan in the near future, because Samurai Assassins would probably be the coolest kind of Assassins they could ever have in the series, imo. :P And Feudal era Japan would just look beautiful in an AC game.

Also: I'm glad to see that it looks like they're embracing natural landscapes this time around, in some fashion. I remember them saying that they were playing with the idea, but didn't have the mechanics down to effectively explore natural environments (climbing trees, finding rock structures that just happen to get you where you need to go for a mission, etc.).