Game director for Assassin’s Creed IV Ashraf Ismail has given an estimate on the game length for the game.
Ismail answered a fan’s question on the matter on twitter by saying:
the main story is 15h -20h. To explore an do everything in the world it’s closer to 60h – 80h
The main story length is similar to previous Assassin’s Creed games. However it looks like Assassin’s Creed IV will have tons of side-quests as well which will make the experience even longer.
He also mentioned Assassin’s Creed IV will be less cinematic as a lot of the story will be told via the gameplay.