Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft suspends X advertising

Skull and Bones has a new release date. Really. Ubisoft revealed that the upcoming pirate MMO is set to raise anchor on February 16th, 2024. There’s a new trailer, and even a deep dive into closed beta, which continues in a new test next week.

Ubisoft is still to officially confirm the Beyond Good & Evil 20th Anniversary Edition, but people are now playing the game after an apparent slip-up saw it briefly available via subscription service Ubisoft+.

Some Assassin's Creed Odyssey console players encountered in-game pop-up ads for Ubisoft's Black Friday Sale while playing the game. As per a Reddit video posted by u/triddell24, they stumbled upon an advertisement when toggling open the world map, filling the screen with a dismissible banner for Assassin's Creed Mirage, currently available at a 20 percent discount. Clicking the ‘Buy Now' button would presumably redirect to the store page for Mirage. Players online have understandable expressed their disappointment over the in-game advertisement that interferes with gameplay. Publisher Ubisoft has since apologised for the pop-up, in addition to stating it was a ‘technical error.'

Ubisoft’s Montreal and Quebec studios have traditionally been the lead developers on most mainline Assassin’s Creed titles, but the company has occasionally pulled in other teams to work on instalments as well. Recently, Ubisoft Bordeaux – which also developed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s first expansion, Wrath of the Druids – released its first instalment in the series with Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and it looks like its association with the property isn’t done just yet.

First reported by Rock Paper Shotgun, console players of older Assassin's Creed games like Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla encountered Black Friday ad pop-ups for the latest entry, Assassin's Creed Mirage, while trying to access in-game menus. Ubisoft has since stated that the ads appeared due to a «technical error» and removed them.

Popular game publisher Ubisoft came under fire recently, after some gamers experienced a mid-game full-screen pop-up ad that showed up on Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Some of them took to Reddit and shared their findings, which led to many gaming enthusiasts calling out the publisher for compromising the gaming experience of users. While it is not rare to see ads in games, they usually appear on the title screen and not once the game has started. Now, Ubisoft has come out and claimed that the incident was caused by a technical error and was not intentional.

Ubisoft has released a statement regarding players reporting that Assassin’s Creed games have started displaying advertisements for Ubisoft’s Black Friday sale. The company has taken to social media platform X to release its statement, referring to the ads being shown in games as a “technical error”, echoing an earlier statement released to The Verge.

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It sure sounds like the Assassin's Creed Mirage studio is already working on more Assassin's Creed.

Ubisoft has said that pop-up adverts seen last night within Assassin's Creed games have now been disabled, and were the result of a technical error.

Companies in the games industry have figured out a stupid number of ways to try and get as much money out of their paying customers as possible, but they never seem to run out of new ideas. Recently, it was reported that ads for Ubisoft’s Black Friday sale had started popping up in-game for some players playing older Assassin’s Creed titles, which, as you might imagine, sparked the ire of many in the community.

Earlier this week reports surfaced of players encountering in-game pop-up adverts for this year's Assassin's Creed: Mirage, while innocently trying to visit the map screen in Ubisoft's older open world stabathon Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.