Assassin’s Creed Mirage, billed as a return to the series’ roots, is set to come to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 12, according to a recently leaked listing for Japanese retailers. It’ll be the first new game in the stealth-action series in three years, the longest gap in the franchise’s history.
Japanese store listings for the game were discovered earlier today. “Japanese retailers generally don’t date a product unless it’s official,” tweeted the website Gematsu. “In other words, placeholder dates aren’t a thing.” While Ubisoft has not yet officially confirmed Mirage’s release date, Kotaku understands the leaks to be accurate as of now, though it’s always possible the game could still be delayed.
Update 5/24/2023 6:05 p.m. ET: Ubisoft made the release date official in the latest PlayStation Showcase via a spiffy new gameplay trailer. It shows off throwing knives, smoke bombs, and a new pole vaulting ability. Players will also be able to use the Assassin’s Focus vision to mark and assassinate multiple targets in a row.
A direct successor to 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Mirage will carry on the story of the street thief Basim Ibn Ishaq and take place largely in Baghdad during the 9th century. Unlike the recent sprawling open-world incarnations of the series, Mirage will seemingly be a more linear adventure with a greater emphasis on closed environment stealth assassinations, similar to much earlier games.
It will also be a smaller game overall, and only priced at $50, even on “next-gen” consoles, rather than $70. As Bloomberg first reported, the project grew out of an expansion for Valhalla that eventually turned into a standalone release to plug gaps in Ubisoft’s increasingly sparse release calendar. The company recently announced it would put 800 more developers to work on the franchise even as it cuts back in other areas following its worst quarterly earnings ever.
One interesting thing to see will be how the game incorporates microtransactions. Recent open-world RPG iterations of Assassin’s Creed have sold a range of in-game XP boosts and cosmetics. Mirage’s more streamlined structure will presumably have less need for paid timesavers. Ubisoft previously confirmed the game will have no real-money gambling or loot boxes. More details about the game are likely to be revealed at the company’s big summer showcase on June 12.