The next Assassin’s Creed game will reportedly be a smaller stealth-based game. That’s according to a new report from Bloomberg. According to the sources at Ubisoft, the game originally started out as an expansion to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla but was later turned into a full game. The game will feature Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Basim as the protagonist. Unlike the last few games in the series, the game will not feature an expansive open-world. Whether that means the game will be more linear or just feature a smaller world is unclear. Instead of the open-world gameplay that the recent games have excelled at, this smaller game will be focused on stealth gameplay.
Ubisoft didn’t release an Assassin’s Creed game in 2021. The company moved away from the yearly model for the franchise when it changed the direction of the games with the relaunch. Instead, Ubisoft has been focused on providing extra content and extending the lifespan of the Assassin’s Creed games it does release. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is the first game in the series to receive a second year of DLC support. That is being headlined by the upcoming Dawn of Ragnarok expansion for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla which releases next month.
According to the report, the upcoming stealth Assassin’s Creed game, code-named Rift, is designed to help fill a gap in Ubisoft’s upcoming release schedule. It’s expected that the game will either be released later this year, presumably in the fall like other Assassin’s Creed games, or in early 2023.
Rift isn’t the only Assassin’s Creed game in development at Ubisoft. Last year, the company confirmed that it was working on Assassin’s Creed Infinity. That is reported to be a live-service game that Ubisoft intends to support for years to come. Details about Infinity are light so far.