Assassin’s Creed Ragnarokis in a peculiar situation. Ubisoft hasn’t hinted one way or the other regarding the existence ofAssassin’s Creed Ragnarokmeaning that, even with all of the rumors surrounding the game, it’s still just a rumored project that could just end up being fake. However, Ubisoft did confirm that anAssassin’s Creedgame of some kind is coming out later this year. Looking at the history ofAssassin’s Creedleaks, one could gather enough information to make a guess as to when Ubisoft will finally reveal what it has been working on.
Ubisoft is a consistent company that has released games regularly enough to the point that one could notice a pattern in its release plans. This is especially true for theAssassin’s Creedfranchise which is whypredictingAssassin’s Creed Ragnarok’srelease dateis also a possibility. Ubisoft’s triple-a series is also notorious for having leaks appear months in advance of pretty much everyACgame to date, which could explain why there are so many rumors onAC Ragnarokto begin with. Interestingly, the only game in the series that was never leaked in advance of a reveal wasAC 2in 2009.
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History of Assassin’s Creed Leaks
Ubisoft’sACseries is indeed known for its leaks. They have become somewhat of a tradition for the franchise to the point that any newleaks onAssassin’s Creed Ragnarokare treated seriously until the new information is proved definitively wrong. It’s so common for the series that Ubisoft has even planned around expected leaks in the past, which makes its radio silence onAC Ragnarokall the more intriguing.Assassin’s Creed Liberation,which was originally a PS Vita game that got ported to consoles, was astonishingly leaked three times for each wave of consoles that it hit.
The very first game in theAssassin’s Creedseries was leaked, via a patent filing, in April 2006, a month before its official reveal.AC Brotherhoodwas leaked when Ubisoft registered a domain name for the game in April 2010, a few weeks before its reveal at E3 2010. Exactly a year later,AC Revelationswas leakedin April 2011 via a Facebook post with an official reveal that followed at E3 2011, ostensibly replicating the release pattern ofAC Brotherhood.
In 2012, this leak-to-reveal pattern of the series happened again but much earlier than it ever did. Promotional art forAC 3was leaked in February of that year which was followed by an official trailer from Ubisoft shortly after in March. Similarly,AC 4 Black Flaghad its art leakonline right before its official reveal in February 2013. Predictably, the next games in the series followed the same pattern. Ubisoft released twoACgames in 2014,AC UnityandAC Rogue,which both had in-game assets leak online in March of that year, which Ubisoft confirmed to be real shortly after.
Notably, 2014 was a big year forAssassin’s Creedleaks, as three major games in the series were leaked that year (which includesAC UnityandAC Rogue). The third game that was leaked in 2014 wasAC Syndicate,which Ubisoft confirmed to be real and later officially revealed in May 2015. Surprisingly, information for the next game in the series,AC Origins(which came out in October 2017), was leaked online as early as January 2016. The leak correctly predicted theancient Egyptian settingas well as the absence of the franchise in 2016 (excluding theAssassin’s Creedmovie).
Hilariously, Ubisoft would have been leak-free with the reveal ofAssassin’s Creed Odysseyat E3 2018, if not for a picture of a promotionalAssassin’s Creedkeychainthat appeared online days before. As for the future of the franchise,AC Ragnarokrumors started up in February 2019 which has given a base for a bunch of other rumors.
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What This Means for Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok
When a Ubisoft artist posted some Viking-inspired art back in February 2019, it got a lot of fans talking about a Viking-themedACgame. The idea only got further traction after a particular in-game poster was found inThe Division 2which depicts a Vikingwith the apple of Eden fromAssassin’s Creed.Rumors have only grown since then but Ubisoft has remained steadily silent. Going by the company’s track record of leaks, it’s fair to say that the nextAssassin’s Creedgame will be revealed, or leaked, in the coming months leading up to E3 2020.
Ubisoft is a massive corporation with thousands of employees, so it’s no surprise that it can’t keep everything under a lid until a proper reveal. With thousands of other moving parts in the Ubisoft machine (such as the keychain manufacturer that helpedleakAC Odyssey), one can safely expect the next game to be leaked in some form or another within the coming weeks. Considering how the majority ofAssassin’s Creedgames were leaked over the months ranging from February to April, a new leak can potentially occur quite soon.
There are a lot ofgames coming out in March 2020, in addition to events like GDC, which is seeing more and more publishers pull out of the event due to concern over the coronavirus outbreak. With the outbreak having as much of an effect as it is on the gaming industry, it’s possible that Ubisoft holds off on any official reveal for the nextAssassin’s Creedgame, at least for another few weeks. Due to the nature of these leaks cutting it so close to the actual reveal of a given game, any delay of a reveal by Ubisoft could also potentially delay any leaks from happening.
If nothing happens in March, then it’s likely that Ubisoft will be cornered into following the familiar pattern of having a game leak in April followed by an official reveal at E3 in June. With the way things are going, this is the most likely scenario to occur in the near future. Ubisoft typically uses E3 as a way to showcase the next big game in theACfranchise, as those games usually come out in the fall. With somebig Ubisoft gamesconfirmed to be coming out within the next year, it seems all but guaranteed thatAssassin’s Creed Ragnarokwill be shown off soon.
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