Ubisoft, the developers and publishers of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, have announced a new game in the series called Assassin’s Creed Mirage.

The announcement game as part of their Ubisoft Forward event. During the Assassin’s Creed Showcase, it was revealed that this game will see players taking on the role of Basim Ibn Ishaq. You might remember him from AC: Valhalla. (Incidentally, here’s our review of the game.)

The game will be set in Baghdad, twenty years before the events of AC: Valhalla.

According to Ubisoft, this will be a modern take on the original gameplay template for earlier AC games. The developer, Ubisoft Bordeaux will be using the same three pillars of design as the original game. Namely, stealth, parkour, and assassinations. 

We didn’t get to see any gameplay but we did get a nice cinematic trailer. It notably contains voice work by Shohreh Aghdashloo, last seen in Arcane (among many other roles). You can check it out below.

As for further details of the game, this is a city-based game and Baghdad will have four districts to explore. The players can also visit Alamut, the fortress headquarters of the Hidden Ones.

The game is reportedly being designed with parkour and stealth in mind, with Ubisoft promising a more granular detection system to allow for more options during stealth. 

While a lot of the game takes inspiration from older AC games, we can also see some traits from modern games such as an eagle companion to scout with.

Basim also has the ability to use an ability called “Assassin’s Focus” to slightly slow down time to perform multiple assassinations in a short duration.

The game is slated for release in 2023 on Xbox Series S/X, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and Amazon Luna. 

And of course, before we get to see a single frame of gameplay, Ubisoft has given us a pricing plan. 

It’s USD 50 for the standard edition, USD 60 for the deluxe edition, and USD 150 for the collector’s edition, which comes with a 32cm statue of Basim, a replica of his brooch, a map, an art book, a soundtrack, and a steelbook.

Aside from Mirage, Ubisoft also announced Assassin’s Creed: Infinity, which is an online platform and hub for AC games. It’s kind of like Fortnite, in the sense that there’s a common platform to consume content through. We once covered this story back when it was just an idea no one asked for. 

Along with this reveal, we also found out that Assassin’s Creed is finally going to Japan. The series has been teasing us with Japan as a possible setting since the release of the original Assassin’s Creed in November, 2007. 

This game is going to come to AC: Infinity and is currently being called AC: Codename Red. It came with a trailer, which you can watch below. The trailer really speaks for itself.

And then there was the announcement of AC: Codename Hexe. The announcement came with its own trailer, which you can see below. Hexe means “witch” in German, by the way.

After that came the announcement of AC: Codename Jade, which is said to be an open world AC game for mobile phones. Here’s a trailer, if you like.

Additionally, it was also revealed that the modern day story of the Assassin’s Creed series (remember that masterpiece of storytelling?) will now be told through Infinity. 

This was presumably done so that upcoming games will not be burdened by having to let go of the Assassin character and switch back to some modern day character you aren’t as invested in to tell you a story about something you barely care about.

And that brings us to the end. However, before we conclude this article, it is important to point out that Ubisoft has been facing multiple allegations of sexual harrasment, workplace abuse, and toxic work conditions. 

If you want to read more about it, you can do so here.