Artwork from the rumored Assassin's Creed Mirage appeared to be leaked last night, leading to Ubisoft revealing the game.
This morning, Ubisoft finally confirmed that Assassin's Creed Mirage is real, perhaps sooner than it intended to make the official reveal.
Late yesterday, artwork that appeared to be related to an upcoming entry in Ubisoft 's long-running stealth-action series surfaced online . Featuring a logo that says "Assassin's Creed Mirage," it depicts a white-hooded figure looking down at a shadowy figure holding a curved sword. The exact context is unclear, but it's possible that the leaked image is related to future DLC planned for the just-announced game.
Assassin 's Creed Mirage, codenamed Rift, is the sequel to 2020's Viking-themed Valhalla. Set in 9th-century Baghdad and originally planned as an expansion to Valhalla, Mirage will put Valhalla's second character, Basim Ibn Ishaq, in the lead role, feature a smaller world to explore, and focus primarily on stealth gameplay.
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Many of these details were already revealed by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier back in February, with Schreier claiming that Assassin's Creed Mirage would be released sometime in spring 2023. Now, between the leaked image and Ubisoft's official tweet, we have our first look at Mirage.
As you can see in the images above, the leaked Assassin's Creed Mirage artwork shows our hooded assassin armed with a short sword and the iconic hidden blade . He's standing in what appears to be a sandy crypt, preparing to face someone with a curved sword. Above one of the images is the text "The Forty Thieves Quest ," which refers to a Middle Eastern legend about a prince seeking revenge on Mongol invaders.
The style of the leaked image is identical to the style Ubisoft has used in the past for promotional artwork tied to DLC in other Assassin's Creed games, such as The Legacy of Beowulf and Valhalla. It's the kind of image you'd see advertising add-on content for a game on Ubisoft's official store page.
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Some believe that Ubisoft itself accidentally leaked the artwork through its store. On the other hand, a conversation Schreier had with someone on Twitter suggests that the leak may have been the work of an outside party. Either way, Ubisoft is trying to “destroy” the leaked artwork, issuing takedown notices and deleting it from the internet as quickly as possible.
In any case, it's possible that the image that leaked late last night is the reason Ubisoft decided to officially confirm the existence, setting, and protagonist of Assassin's Creed Mirage this morning, 10 days before the game's scheduled reveal at the Ubisoft Forward on September 10th at 3pm ET.
When asked for comment, a Ubisoft spokesperson simply pointed Kotaku its official tweet as confirmation of Mirage's existence.
Mirage isn't the only Assassin's Creed game Ubisoft is currently working on. The studio is also developing a live-service project codenamed Infinity, which is said to include different but interconnected Assassin's Creed games, with ongoing content updates adding more settings and timelines.
Source: kotaku.com
