2023’s edition of Assassin’s Creed is still without a release date, but a reliable source suggests it’s been internally delayed to later this year.
The Assassin’s Creed series has seemingly been on a mission as of late to deliver the biggest, most intimidating open worlds for players to explore. That’s why, following the bloat that was Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and its various expansions, it was refreshing to hear Ubisoft wants to dial the scope back with the Baghdad-set Assassin’s Creed Mirage. It was thought the stealth-focussed entry would launch in August, but that’s seemingly no longer the case.
Word of Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s internal delay comes by way of reliable industry insider Tom Henderson, who in a post on Twitter earlier this week suggested that the game had been bumped by a few months. “It seems like AC Mirage has been internally delayed from August to October,” he said without mentioning a specific date. Ubisoft itself never officially dated the game, but August was all but confirmed thanks to a reddit post from a GameStop employee, yet Henderon's comments suggest this plan has since changed.
An October release date would place Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s launch around a similar time as other franchise instalments, as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Origins before also previously released in September. Ubisoft itself is yet to acknowledge the delay if it’s true. That said, we’re almost guaranteed to learn more about the game during Ubisoft’s Ubisoft Forward livestream event on June 12, 2023.
Live by the creed
While I commend Ubisoft’s hope to (quite literally) sneak out a mainline Assassin’s Creed instalment earlier than what we’ve come to expect from the series, the summer is already looked stacked with the release of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Final Fantasy 16 and other blockbuster titles.
Hearing that Assassin’s Creed Mirage may have slipped to the franchise’s usual October/ November slot makes sense, because players are always in need of big games to play over the holiday and neither PlayStation or Xbox have a first-party exclusive dated to release around then.
By being a more streamlined, stealth-focused entry that harkens back to the original Assassin’s Creed games, my gut tells me that Ubisoft hoped to release it earlier in this year to make way for another, larger Assassin’s Creed game it has. We know it has other projects in the works such as Assassin’s Creed Red and Assassin’s Creed Hexe that will apparently feed into its new platforming-sounding experience Assassin’s Creed Infinity.
That said, by potentially being delayed to October, I think Assassin’s Creed Mirage stands a better chance at being picked up by people.
