I'm at the point now where I can't honestly say without checking whether the Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remake has been officially revealed or not. It's happening, obviously, but has Ubisoft actually said so? Apparently it has not—yes, I checked—but it has, as PC Gamer wordsmith Joshua Wolens put it in September, reached "unprecedented levels of leaked." Yet somehow, it now is even more leaked.
The latest leakage comes by way of PEGI, the Pan European Game Information agency, which has helpfully provided an 18 rating for something called Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. There's little more to be gleaned from the rating at this point, except that the game has violence, bad language, and in-game purchases.
I've reached out to Ubisoft for comment, because as far as I know it has continued to steadfastly refuse that any of this is happening. And while I typically cast such requests into the ether with no real hope that my existence will even be acknowledged, much less responded to, in this case I feel like maybe Ubisoft is ready to throw up its hands and finally cop to the whole thing.
Just consider what's happened over the past six months alone:
- Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake is such a badly kept secret it's been leaked by a statue maker who just assumed we all knew it was coming
- Ubisoft can't button its yap about the not-so-secret Black Flag remake—now Edward Kenway's voice actor is telling AC4 fans 'You might have to beat it again'
- Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag actor says Ubisoft threatened to sue him for blabbing about the remake that everyone and their grandma knows is coming (That one's not really a leak, but if you're yelling at a guy to shut the hell up about the leak, well, you might have a leak.)
- Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake reaches unprecedented levels of leaked, despite Ubisoft's best efforts to stomp on yapping actors
Unprecedented levels of leaked! But not unsurpassable, it seems.
This latest gaping hole in the hull doesn't necessarily suggest that a release is imminent. There's no sign of Black Flag Resynced on the ESRB or Australian Classification websites, and the leak prior to this one pointed toward a March 2026 launch date, still a few months away.
But it would be nice if Ubisoft would quit horsing around and at least admit that it's happening—although given how it's gone with the Splinter Cell remake that's been twisting in the wind since it was announced four years ago (four goddamn years!), maybe this Circus of Leaks is better. At least we can have some fun with it.
Ubisoft did get back to me on this one, by the way, but it's not ready to raise the white flag just yet: A rep said the company has "nothing to share at this time."
