A new report from Bloomberg claims Ubisoft is turning an Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla expansion into a full game to give it something to release before the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Infinity.
According to the outlet’s sources, the new game (codenamed Rift) made the shift from DLC to full game at the end of 2021, and it will star Basim, the (supporting but) major assassin character of Valhalla, as actual protagonist Eivor was merely passing through the larger Assassin’s Creed storyline. Bloomberg says Rift will be smaller in scale than the open-world of Valhalla proper, and will instead be focused on stealth. The game is currently planned to launch either in late 2022 or might be pushed into 2023.
When asked about the game, a Ubisoft representative told Bloomberg the company doesn’t comment “on rumors or speculation as they do a disservice to our development teams and community.” They also added the company has a “solid and exciting line-up of titles in our pipeline, both established brands with new story twists and features, and brand new IPs that will continue to change the landscape of today’s video games.”
More Assassin’s Creed and Ubisoft:
- A Late Game Twist Complicates Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s Gay Representation
- A Bug is Preventing Players From Completing Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla’s Final Quest
- Ubisoft’s NFT Push is the Latest in a Long Line of Investor-Driven Decisions
All of this follows an extensive scandal within Ubisoft after stories of mistreatment of workers began to circulate online, as well as a multitude of other issues that have resulted in some turnover at the publisher. The company has apparently taken steps to address these problems, but employees have reportedly been unhappy with the state of things, still. More recently, Ubisoft’s Singapore office was the subject of an investigation by TAFEP, which ruled the company had taken appropriate action following reports of discrimination and harassment within the studio.
