Stéphane Boudon

Ubisoft has labelled Assassin’s Creed Mirage its biggest new-gen launch so far in terms of unit sales.

Ubisoft has announced that Assassin's Creed Red is now officially Assassin's Creed Shadows andconfirmed that a trailer will release this week.

It's clear to those who have played 2020's and 2023's that Basim Ibn Ishaq will play a major role in the series going forward. Basim was introduced as a master assassin as part of the Hidden Ones — the group that would go on to become the Assassin's Order — in, meeting Eivor's Viking clan and offering to help them expand their operations in Norway and England. The series then went back to Baghdad in the year 861 and depicted a 17-year-old Basim's origin story through a smaller, more stealth-focused title in. Here, players followed Basim as he learned new tactics from his mentor Roshan to take down members of The Order of the Ancients, a clandestine group pulling the strings across Persia.

Assassin's Creed Mirage's director has said that he has ideas on how to extend the story of protagonist Basim.

Ubisoft opens up about new content for Assassin's Creed Mirage, confirming that it won't get any DLC, but the devs may not be done exploring Basim's story. This latest title in the franchise received considerable recognition from new and long-term fans of the hooded protagonists. With Assassin's Creed Mirage, the franchise went back to its roots by offering a compelling and story-driven narrative that die-hard AC fans were waiting for.

As an Assassin's Creed girlie, I enjoyed Assassin's Creed Mirage, a pared down (but still big game, which is really just proof of how bloated AAA games have gotten, but I'll stop because it's not time to take my personal bugbear for a walk) Ass Creed game that was closer to the simplicity of the older games in the stab 'em up stealth-action series. Yesterday creative director Stéphane Boudon and art director Jeal-Luc Sala took to Reddit for an AMA, and in response to a question about plans for Mirage DLC, Boudon said no - but that they have ideas for more stories for Basim.

Assassin's Creed Mirage launched in October last year, offering a pared back, back-to-the basics experience reminiscent of older games in the series. The action-adventure title from Ubisoft took players to 9th-century Baghdad, putting them in the shoes of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street thief who joins the Hidden Ones and rises through the ranks to become a master assassin. While there's no word on if the franchise will revisit the character again, Assassin's Creed Mirage creative director has said that the team has ideas about where Basim's story could go.

Though Ubisoft’s upcoming stealth action thriller Assassin’s Creed Mirageplans to return the series to its roots by revisiting Baghdad, an interview with senior developers on the title has revealed that the action game will be visiting yet another iconic location from the series’ past.

During my cover story trip to Ubisoft Bordeaux in France, my hands-on time consisted of Baghdad exploration and contracts. The former was good fun – Baghdad feels almost like a 2023 spiritual reimagining of Jerusalem in 2007’s Assassin’s Creed, with plenty of rooftops and parkour paths to hit from objective to objective. But the latter was the highlight of my experience. 

When Ubisoft revealed Assassin’s Creed Mirage last September, it also announced that Basim Ibn Is’haq, the master assassin who brought Eivor into the Hidden Ones order in 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, was returning. This time, however, he would the playable protagonist. His journey in Mirage takes him from street thief to Hidden Ones order initiate and eventually to the master assassin we see in Valhalla. 

The folks over at Ubisoft are gearing up to release Assassin’s Creed Mirage. We know the game is coming out in the following month. However, we’re just now learning that Assassin’s Creed Mirage was initially supposed to be DLC. With Ubisoft Bordeaux working on the title, their initial pitch was to see a DLC release for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla that would take players back to the Middle East. However, that pitch only lasted a few weeks before things shifted in a far bigger way.

When Ubisoft revealed Assassin’s Creed Mirage last September during a special stream celebrating the series’ 15th anniversary, the game was up to bat as the next in the long-running series. Set to hit PlayStation, Xbox, and PC for $49.99 with a scaled-back approach and a much shorter runtime, Ubisoft indicated it was using Mirage to return to the series’ roots, serving as a spiritual successor to Altair’s adventure that started it all. 

The Assassin's Creed series has taken us far and wide in telling the story of the ongoing conflict between the Order of Assassins and the Knights Templar, and with such a geographical and historical scope Ubisoft also has a duty to accurately and respectfully depict the various cultures seen in the series.

Assassin's Creed Mirage will release a week earlier than originally announced, bringing its release date to the very beginning of October and giving it some extra breathing room ahead of Alan Wake 2, Lords of the Fallen and the Metal Gear Solid Master Collection. Christ, it’s still a busy month though, isn’t it?

Ubisoft has brought forward the Assassin’s Creed Mirage release date by one week.

Assassin's Creed Mirage may be bringing the series back to its roots with scaled-back environments and a focus on stealth, but one aspect of the more recent entries could also be part of Basim's adventure - microtransactions.