A spot of artwork from the long-rumored Assassin’s Creed Mirage appeared to leak past night. Then this morning, Ubisoft yet confirmed that the crippled is real, possibly earlier than it had intended to marque the authoritative reveal. It’s rather a leaky vessel implicit there.

Late yesterday, a portion of artwork that appeared to beryllium related to an upcoming introduction successful Ubisoft’s long-running stealth-action bid popped up online. Sporting an “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” logo, it depicts a white-hooded fig staring down a shadowy signifier wielding a curved sword. The nonstop discourse is unclear, but it’s imaginable the leaked representation is tied to aboriginal downloadable contented planned for the just-announced game.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage, antecedently codenamed “Rift,” is the follow-up to 2020's viking-themed Valhalla. Set successful 9th introduction Baghdad and primitively planned arsenic an enlargement to Valhalla, Mirage volition enactment Valhalla supporting quality Basim Ibn Ishaq successful the pb role, diagnostic a much condensed satellite to explore, and absorption chiefly connected stealth gameplay.

Many of these deets were already uncovered by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier successful February, with Schreier purporting that the crippled volition onshore sometime successful outpouring 2023. Now, betwixt the leaked representation and Ubisoft’s authoritative announcement tweet, we’ve got our archetypal glimpse astatine what Mirage volition look like, and portion it isn’t overmuch yet, it astatine slightest looks similar quintessential Assassin’s Creed.

As you tin spot successful the images above, the leaked creation shows our hooded assassin equipped with a abbreviated sword and the iconic hidden blade. They are lasting successful what appears to beryllium a sandy crypt of immoderate sort, preparing to look disconnected against idiosyncratic with a curved sword. Emblazoned implicit 1 of the images is the substance “The Forty Thieves Quest,” which refers to a Middle Eastern fable astir a prince taking revenge against Mongol invaders.

The benignant of the leaked representation is identical to the benignant Ubisoft has antecedently utilized for promotional artwork tied to DLCs successful different Assassin’s Creed games, specified arsenic Valhalla’s The Legacy of Beowulf. It’s the benignant of representation you’d spot advertizing add-on contented connected an Ubisoft game’s authoritative store page.

Some judge Ubisoft itself accidentally leaked the artwork done its store. On the different hand, an speech Schreier had with idiosyncratic connected Twitter suggests the leak whitethorn person been the enactment of immoderate outer party. Either way, Ubisoft is cracking down connected the leaked portion of artwork, issuing takedown notices and scrubbing it from the net arsenic accelerated arsenic it can. You cognize however that goes, though.

In immoderate case, it’s imaginable the representation leaking precocious past nighttime is the crushed Ubisoft decided to officially corroborate Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s existence, setting, and protagonist this morning, 10 days up of the game’s planned quality successful the Ubisoft Forward presumption connected September 10 astatine 3 p.m. ET.

When reached for comment, a Ubisoft typical simply pointed Kotaku to its authoritative tweet arsenic confirmation of Mirage’s existence.

Mirage isn’t the lone Assassin’s Creed crippled Ubisoft is moving connected close now. The workplace is besides developing a live-service task codenamed Infinity, which volition reportedly diagnostic antithetic but interconnected Assassin’s Creed games, with ongoing contented updates adding much settings and timelines. However, different details person been revealed astir this task arsenic of yet.