Spin-off or not?

[Brigor]

I have not played AC Rouge yet and I wonder if it is Part of the normal continuing story of AC with Desmond and his friends or is it just a spin-off like Liberation. I mean it was released so fast after Unity, that I am not sure... can anyone tell me?

[MASTAN]

Rogue was released simultaneously with Unity on consoles, just on different generations.

The story is shorter than Black Flag, though gameplay is basically the same. You even get to battle Legendary ships.
Unlike Unity you get nowadays missions, in the same Abstergo building that was in BF.

BTW some AC Liberation people are mentioned in Rogue(in letters and in nowadays Abstergo), so it is considered canon.

Rogue story connects 3 other games, lets you see people from there and even kill some!
Timeline is like that: AC4 BF, Rogue(main story), AC3, Rogue(~3 missions), Unity.