Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, the 2026 remake of Black Flag, has been a critical and commercial success by pretty much every metric, but Ubisoft says it's done remaking classic Assassin's Creed games for now.

In Ubisoft's Fall 2026 update for the Assassin's Creed series, the studio gives an overview of the current Assassin's Creed games in development. No new games are revealed, naturally, but we do get updates on upcoming Assassin's Creed games like the multiplayer-focused Codename Invictus, which Ubisoft says is still in development and "evolving in an exciting direction that better reflects" key Assassin's Creed pillars "while staying true to its multiplayer ambitions."

Meanwhile, Assassin's Creed Hexe, the darker, witchcraft-themed next mainline entry in the series, is "making steady progress" although "there is still work ahead," says Ubisoft. "The team remains focused on delivering the unique vision at the heart of this project, and we'll share our next major update in 2027."

Now, what isn't in development is another Assassin's Creed remake, Ubisoft confirms. While the studio is "super proud of what the Resynced team delivered and how well it was received," it isn't planning anymore remakes at the moment. "Our teams are already focused on the next chapter of Assassin's Creed titles, including projects you haven't heard about yet, featuring new settings and stories," reads Ubisoft's blog.

As some of the legacy Assassin's Creed games are pushing 20 years old now, I do think there's value in remastering or remaking them so that they aren't completely lost to time. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood in particular is one I'd love to see remade for modern hardware, and thankfully Ubisoft says it isn't done with remakes forever. "Like many of you, we love the idea of revisiting our classic titles, and we'll keep exploring opportunities to bring older titles back," it says. "That door remains open because, after all... Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

Find out where your fave landed on our ranking of the best Assassin's Creed games.

Ubisoft has announced that this week's Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced update will be its "final major content update."

Last week, Ubisoft broke its months-long silence on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced by revealing a forthcoming New Game Plus mode, and at the time I questioned whether that would be the only thing in the update. Now we have all the answers, with Ubisoft's patch notes detailing a higher difficulty mode, hidden community chests, new takedowns, new cosmetics, and a host of bug fixes. Not bad at all for the revamped pirate game's final sendoff.

The New Game Plus mode is pretty standard, letting you play through the main quest from the beginning with everything you picked up in your previous playthrough, and with an increasing world difficulty for every new playthrough. Same goes for Nightmare difficulty as the game's hardest challenge with the "deadliest" enemies. Specifically, all of your foes will deal 1.8x their normal damage, parries will be trickier to pull off, and crucially, the one-shot kill safety will be disabled, meaning any stray bullet will have the potential to take you out even if you're full health. Meanwhile, stealth will be more tilted in your enemies' favor, all ships will do more damage to your own, and even sea creatures like sharks and jellyfish will be more dangerous than before.

There isn't a whole lot of information on the new community chests, but Ubisoft says they'll be "more challenging" to find and will include "special community requested rewards."

In a nice little throwback to 2013's Black Flag, the final Resynced update will add new takedowns from the original game, including hidden blade, unarmed, single sword and gunblade takedowns. Why these weren't in the remake to start with, I have no idea, but better late than never. Rounding out the update are a bunch of new cosmetics including new outfits, new pet skins, and trinkets, which you can uncover by playing the New Game Plus mode, as well as a treasure chest full of bug fixes.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced version 1.0.8 releases on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on October 27.

Find out where Black Flag ranks on our list of the best Assassin's Creed games ever.

In another totally jam-packed year of new video games, it feels like centuries since Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced released (it's really only been a few months), but completionists haven't stopped asking Ubisoft for a New Game Plus mode. Well, Ubisoft has rather casually confirmed the game's New Game Plus update is coming in an update "next week," silencing months of player requests in a 16-word tweet.

"Thank you everyone for your patience," reads a tweet from the official Assassin's Creed Twitter account, seemingly acknowledging the amount of time it's been since we've heard anything at all about Black Flag Resynced post-launch. "New Game+ is coming to Black Flag Resynced next week!"

I'll admit, even being the pirate game sicko I am and with Black Flag having been one of my most anticipated releases of the year, I fell off that game hard. Don't get me wrong, it's a gorgeous remake that manages to do the unlikely and actually improve on the original game, which has always been a 10/10 release for me. It's just that, for me, a remake is always going to have a hard time competing against brand-new games, and there have been some incredible ones this year from my presumptive GOTY The Blood of Dawnwalker to the best new horror game I've played in ages, Resident Evil Requiem.

But that's by the by. It's unclear if the Black Flag Resynced update containing the New Game Plus mode will have anything else bundled in, as again it's been a while since the game got any new content at all, but it's at least confirmed that you'll have a whole new way to play through the main campaign again.

We'll also be keeping an eye out for an exact release date, as so far it's just "next week," but either way it's certain we'll know more soon.

Here's how we ranked the best Assassin's Creed games ever.

Any franchise that lasts a number of years always winds up with a few unrealized projects, whether from partnerships that fell through or ideas that simply just didn't come together. Assassin's Creed has a bunch of them, and details and footage of another one have emerged.

This particular game was called Assassin's Creed Destiny, and it was part of a collaboration between Ubisoft and Chinese conglomerate Tencent. You might be aware these industry giants are currently working on Assassin's Creed Jade, a mobile game first announced back in 2022.

They had a couple of other potential releases on the docket as well, and one of them was remarkably similar to Jade. In fact, according to details gleaned by MP1st, Assassin's Creed Destiny was also set in China, and during the same period, taking place around 206 BCE, nine years after the events of Jade.

It would've been a full, triple-A game on modern hardware, marking a grand return to Chinese history after Assassin's Creed Chronicles way back in 2015. Jade is still fulfilling that promise, but on a different scale. Destiny was being handled by TiMi group, and we now have a smattering of images and clips demonstrating what could've been.

This definitely looks like a full-on Assassin's Creed game. You've the player character skulking around a palace during the Qin Empire. Your mission is to prevent an invading army from stealing some form of treasure. Doing so gets bloodier and messier than anyone would like, but you spend the majority of your time in the shadows, taking out soldiers and other enemies.

It looks intriguing - the architectural layouts offer plenty of exploration and the swords and spears make combat feel weighty. There's a spinning blade, somewhat like an umbrella, that seems like it would've been very entertaining.

Destiny was only canceled last year, a casualty of restructuring at TiMi. It's unknown how far along the game ultimately was, or if any of its ideas live on in Jade. There's no release window for the mobile game yet, but at least we can now look at what could've been.

Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake doesn't even rate against GTA 6 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4 as the "biggest games of the year," Activision exec says

Any job worth doing in Watch Dogs 2 is worth doing to music. And so, the best mechanic in Ubisoft's hacker-action sequel is Marcus Holloway's earbuds. Equippable at any time, they pump an eclectic stream of on-demand tunes, from Dizzee Rascal to Anti-Flag, KC & The Sunshine Band to Run The Jewels and more, into your ears. You can freely soundtrack any mission (attempting grand larceny while blaring Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is one moment we won't forget in a hurry) or simply wander the streets of San Francisco to your favourite songs.

One particular track so perfectly captures the philosophy of Watch Dogs 2, it almost feels as if the game was formed around it. We blast Get Stupid as we have Holloway ride on top of a car like it's a skateboard, driving it remotely via his phone. "Get stupid, it's what we do good," Mac Dre raps. "Ghost ride the whip while we dancin' on the hood." Virtual Californians look on in bewilderment, and we laugh uproariously. Even Dre seems to admire our efforts, crooning his approval: "Boy, we go dumb, dude". Credit to Ubisoft, then, for a tonal U-turn of such epic proportions that it singlehandedly saved a series. Watch Dogs got stupid. And it worked.

Bright lights of play

After the 2014 release of Watch Dogs, something had to be done. It suffered as a result of a now-infamous E3 2012 reveal that, on the cusp of a new generation of consoles, made promises beyond the actual graphical capabilities. The ‘downgrade', as it was dubbed, was apparent to anyone playing the final game. But on top of that, Watch Dogs didn't endear itself to players. Its Chicago setting was designed to be cramped and dark, a representation of a city riddled with surveillance cameras and made paranoid under the all-seeing eye of Big Tech. And its lead, Aiden Pearce, had all the charisma of wet cardboard.

Sunny San Francisco is a breath of fresh air in comparison. It's a riot of colour and sound, where all-glass offices sit around the corner from pastel Victorian houses, and perverse wealth brushes past crippling poverty. Artists and entrepreneurs roam the streets, each convinced they're a little more like the other. It's a place that, in art as in life, more accurately encapsulates the tech industry, a sphere infinitely more ridiculous than it is terrifying.

Holloway, too, is a fresh take on a well-worn theme: he's a young, Black, brilliant hacker who has the sense of self to recognise his own oppression as one part of a much bigger problem. He's also likeable enough that he can make some friends who'll help him do something about it. Your mileage may vary regarding the core crew, who often express themselves via corny LED emoji masks and outdated turns of phrase (2010 called, Ubisoft, and it wants its ‘Y U NO' meme back). But their exuberance was a welcome shot in the arm coming off the back of Watch Dogs: these people are not only not about to take this shit lying down, but they have a sense of humour about it, too.

In turn, it makes it easier to accept many of the game's flaws as part of its precocious personality. There are, of course, precisely zero realities in which San Franciscans are bombing around on mopeds bumping a playlist clearly composed by someone Googling ‘songs about the Bay Area'. It's an improvement on the first instalment's soundtrack, however, which Edge once described as "songs by artists from Chicago, that once lived in Chicago, that have Chicago in the title or are by the band Chicago". And as part of a fantasy in which you can drain bank accounts at the press of a button, and five kids can afford to rent a hackerspace in the middle of San Francisco? It somehow feels in keeping with the bombastic tone to strut around your home turf, insisting to the seals at Pier 39 that "in the Bay Area we dance a little different".

Happily, sightseeing is something of which much is made in Watch Dogs 2. This is a developer known for pouring a huge amount of resources (although very few of them human, if the recent stories of abuse coming out of the studio are anything to go by) into its recreations of famous locales, and yet it took until Watch Dogs 2 for it to openly acknowledge the proportion of players who enjoy these games mainly as an excuse to partake in virtual tourism. The ScoutX app on Holloway's phone flags up several of Frisco's best-known – and even some lesser-known – landmarks for you to hunt down and photograph, which widens DedSec's online reach.

Even SongSneak, Watch Dogs 2's Shazam equivalent, encourages you to get among it all in pursuit of new songs. If you're within 25 metres of a song playing over a bar's sound system, being blared from a boombox or a car radio, you can press a button to add it to your phone playlists. Ubisoft hit on something essential with this particular implementation, taking a realisation that GTA maker Rockstar had long ago and pushing it that little bit further: the fact that our love of music is so often about the context in which we first hear it, how it's threaded through the very fabric of cities and cultures, and bound so strongly with memory. It's not a reward doled out randomly upon you completing a load of laundry or getting a new job; you hear it somewhere, pick it up and take it with you.

Still, the whole thing is largely enjoyable caricature; while it's not perfect, its flaws do tend to work in its favour. Ubisoft's NPC AI in Watch Dogs 2 leaves much to be desired, with its ambitious interlocking systems often bumping awkwardly against each other. But when they come off in ludicrous ways, it feels only appropriate for this exaggerated vision of San Francisco, in which AirPod-wearing trust-fund babies call the cops on each other over an argument about latte foam, and taking a selfie in front of a marriage proposal sets off a chain of events that ends with a fistfight between the two lovers. Few games since have sported a world that feels so systemic, most likely because it is so loud about it. As a result, whatever you're doing has a visible impact, a feeling surely top of any young revolutionary's wishlist.

Indeed, DedSec's ability to draw in others (represented by the idea of ‘followers' as an in-game currency earned through completing missions and posting photos to your fictional social media accounts) plays a key mechanical and narrative role in positioning it as an organisation by the people, for the people.

And it's that – not the one-button ‘quick hacks', or the suggestion that bonking someone on the head with a billiard ball on a bungee cord is a non-lethal pursuit – that's the real fantasy in play here: that you can stick it to the man, if only you've got a laptop and enough energy. And that it can be fun.

Plugged in

One of the earliest, pettiest and most memorable missions has you steal what is essentially KITT from Knight Rider because Holloway reckons the ‘Cyberdriver' film makes hacker culture look childish. To which his response is to remote-drive the car across a pyrotechnic-laden assault course through the city while Judas Priest's Turbo Lover plays on the speakers, before crashing it through a promotional billboard. Quod erat demonstrandum, mate.

But we have the pleasure of watching Holloway and the gang gradually mature. And we do mean gradually – the skewering of a Martin Shkreli-esque pharma bro being another laugh-out-loud moment placed front and centre of the campaign. As the story unfolds, we see DedSec mobilise more effectively, sniffing out corruption among law enforcement, politicians, and a tech corporation monopolising and weaponising the world's data. A final mission in which you switch between playing as every one of the core group underscores the idea that collective effort is the key to standing up to the most untouchable of establishments.

It's a concept that follow-up series entry Watch Dogs: Legion tries to run with, but fails to communicate. In attempting to showcase that rebellion is a collaborative affair, its ‘play as anyone' tech ends up robbing London's inhabitants of any sense of individuality beyond randomly-generated character descriptions. And this is what, for all its occasional clumsiness, Watch Dogs 2 got so right back in 2016, just as a megalomaniac celebrity was stepping into his role as US president: power struggles are a personality contest, and with the advent of the Internet, they are even more so.

We look to leaders who outwardly represent our values, people we can relate to, and believe in. In Legion, every possible wrinkle in every playable character has to be ironed out to fit the exact same vague template. It's difficult to get invested in the fates of people who don't feel real – furthermore, any attempts at retaining some of Watch Dogs 2's good-natured clownery ring hollow without anyone believable to attach it to. And when your firearms are lethal, it feels a lot less like mischief and more like murder.

By contrast, Holloway – along with most other things in Watch Dogs 2 – does feel genuine. Ubisoft surely felt it had little to lose by abandoning the stifling self-seriousness of the first Watch Dogs, and instead headed in the opposite direction to embrace the actual hacker fantasy. It feels like a creative team hanging out the sunroof, doing what it wants to, as Mac Dre puts it; in doing so, it uncovers fundamental truths about why so many people really dream of having some control over the world they live in. It may be a work of fiction, but there's a lot of truth in the way it portrays one possible view of a revolution – with an emphasis on earnestness, connection, and even a little fun. Sometimes you have to get stupid to be taken seriously

This Watch Dogs 2 article was first published in issue 354 of Edge Magazine. To get more like this delivered straight to your doorstep (or digital device) consider subscribing to Edge.

A good couple of years have passed since we've heard anything solid about Watch Dogs, the action-adventure series that had 13-year-old me stupidly excited in the early 2010s – but it's back in the limelight now, it seems.

Watch Dogs is a bit of a strange one, really. There's a movie in the works still that (as far as we know, anyway) started filming back in 2024 with little news coming about it since, and nothing about any new game – but that might be changing.

As per a recent report from Game File, Watch Dogs is still on Ubisoft's mind. So much so, in fact, that it's an IP that the studio feels will be a part of its future in some capacity.

According to the report, company CEO Yves Guillemot says (via a translator) Watch Dogs is "still a brand that we consider to be an important brand for the future."

He explains as much during Ubisoft's annual meeting, apparently, going on to respond with the reason why the series isn't listed under any of the team's "creative houses" – divisions that each focus on particular games – and that's when he mentions a potential remake of the original Watch Dogs.

"It's not expected to [be] put… in a creative house for the moment," Guillemot states, "before it's potentially remade."

The series is just lying dormant right now, and longtime fans are bound to anticipate more news.

What about a Watch Dogs 4, though? Well, it doesn't seem like it's in the cards just yet (if it ever even will be). And, of course, there is still that live-action film, whenever it may come.

For now, I suppose that all we can do is wait to hear more from Ubisoft – and replay the first few Watch Dogs games, I guess – or, if you're anything like me, enjoy the first two and, uh, pretend that Legion doesn't exist.

Searching for more to look forward to? Browse through our roundup of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond to wishlist right now.

Despite everything suggesting otherwise, Beyond Good and Evil 2 is apparently still happening and in development, with an Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji developer announcing his involvement.

As spotted by IGN, over on Bluesky, Rik Godwin, lead writer and associate narrative director at Ubisoft Bordeaux, confirms that "for the past few months I've been working on Beyond Good & Evil 2 in a support/consultant role." The game has been missing in action for some time, but this is the latest confirmation that it's apparently still happening.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 was announced back in 2008 in the form of a teaser trailer showing Pey'j and Jade, which was to be Ubisoft Montpellier's next release. Then nine years of pretty much nothing passed and we got a proper trailer for the game at E3 2017 alongside the controversial collaboration with HitRecord. The following year, the game received a gameplay presentation, but since then there really hasn't been much. In 2022, the game broke Duke Nukem Forever's record for being the game with the longest development time.

Original Beyond Good and Evil director Michel Ancel departed Ubisoft in 2020, and then in 2023, the sequel's creative director Emile Morel sadly passed away at the age of 40, with Fawzi Mesmar taking on the role. This, mixed with extended periods of silence about the game, and Ubisoft's recent shakeup that saw the cancellation of six projects has led to speculation that the game has been quietly canceled over the years. However, Ubisoft previously confirmed that the game was not one of its six recently canceled titles, and that it was still in development.

Ubisoft was reportedly working on a new Legend of Zelda game starring Ganondorf, only for Nintendo to shoot it down.

Mario + Rabbids developer Ubisoft Milan once reportedly pitched a Zelda game to Nintendo that was set to star series antagonist Ganondorf.

For a while there, Nintendo was more happy to let outside developers work on some of its franchises. While the publisher has let the likes of Forever Entertainment and Velan Studios work on Donkey Kong and Star Fox remakes, during the Switch era we got a couple of bespoke crossover games in the form of the Mario + Rabbids duology and Cadence of Hyrule, the latter of which blended Crypt of the NecroDancer with The Legend of Zelda.

Per an Insider Gaming report, following the release of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, discussions between Nintendo and Ubisoft Milan about the next collaboration began, with the team pitching a Zelda project codenamed Goliath. This project reportedly starred a new protagonist to the series, but during production it changed to a game starring series antagonist Ganondorf, apparently at Nintendo's request.

Nintendo was reportedly on board with the idea, and the studio had until the end of 2023 to deliver a prototype; however, it's claimed that Nintendo rejected the prototype, resulting in the project's cancellation. Following this, the studio allegedly proposed a Star Fox or new Mario title, but eventually conversations between the two developers broke down.

Not long after the supposed cancellation, Mario + Rabbids developers Davide Soliani, Cristina Nava, and Gian Marco Zanna left Ubisoft to form Day 4 Night, who are currently working on platformer Bradley the Badger. Zanna told Multiplayer.it that the decision to leave Ubisoft was based on a project led by Soliani falling through, which could be this Zelda title.

GamesRadar+ has reached out to Ubisoft and Nintendo for comment, and Ubisoft tells us, "We do not comment on rumours or speculation." We'll update this article if Nintendo responds.

Nintendo has quietly updated the Zelda timeline, and somehow the Ocarina of Time remake has made it even more complicated.

Without getting too misty-eyed, a "physical game" used to be easy to define. You bought a box and the game was sitting inside on a disc or cartridge.

Fast-forward to today and things are more complicated. The box might hold a download code or a Game-Key Card that still needs software from a server, while some expensive collector’s editions don’t even include a physical copy at all. So, with Sony steering full-steam toward Playstation's digital-only future, what exactly are we going to mean by a "physical game" in 2030?

To find out, I spoke to Perry Gresham, head of data at MIDiA Research, and James McWhirter, senior analyst at Omdia. Their answers suggest the physical box isn’t necessarily going anywhere – but what it contains, and what owning it gives you, may change dramatically.

Physical demand could outlive the disc

It’s easy to look at the growing share of digital game sales and assume the physical market is heading towards zero. Gresham thinks the picture is more complicated.

"[The] decline in consumer demand is somewhat overstated by the headline digital vs physical figures reported in financial statements," he says. "It’s important to be careful about what’s actually being measured – there are factors that distort the picture. PC and mobile games are almost entirely digital-only, a lot of games now aren’t seeing a physical release, and importantly, stats reported often include in-game spending within the ‘digital’ part."

Gresham also notes that discounted older games still count as digital unit sales, while second-hand physical sales aren’t captured in publisher financials.

There’s still plenty of appetite for something tangible, too. Recent YouGov research found 51% of US console gamers generally preferred discs or cartridges, with permanent ownership the most commonly cited reason among physical buyers.

Gresham expects the physical market decline to moderate as we approach 2030, in part because many of the people still buying physical games actively care about ownership, resale, or collecting. If publishers force that audience towards digital, some may simply stop buying instead. “There’s a risk of shrinking the pie if those physical buyers don’t shift over,” he says.

If that decline does flatten, the pressure may increasingly come from the supply side: companies could stop making discs and cartridges before players stop wanting to buy them. PlayStation is already moving in that direction, with Sony planning to end disc production in 2028.

Why publishers want the game off the disc

Changing buying habits are only part of the appeal for publishers – there are some very practical reasons to get the game itself off the disc or cartridge.

On Nintendo platforms, physical remains a major route to market. Omdia estimates that just under 40% of full-game purchases in 2026 will be physical. But McWhirter says the cost of Switch 2 Game Cards is significant, with Game-Key Cards offering publishers a cheaper alternative.

"The cheaper per-unit cost of Game Key-Cards allows publishers like Square Enix and Ubisoft to launch at lower price points while also giving them the flexibility to discount post-launch and avoid ‘Switch tax’ and code-in-box reprints," he says.

McWhirter notes that Nintendo has wrestled with cartridge cost and supply before, citing the Famicom Disk System and Nintendo 64DD as earlier attempts to find alternatives.

Physical manufacturing creates an earlier deadline, too. On PlayStation and Xbox, McWhirter says download-dependent releases can give developers more time to finish a game before it has to be locked down for manufacture. "This is more important for games aiming to launch during periods where release dates are less flexible, like the holiday season," he says.

The disc also sits awkwardly with platform strategies that increasingly stretch beyond the living-room console. PlayStation and Xbox are looking towards PCs, handhelds, and cloud streaming to reach players on more devices.

McWhirter puts it plainly: “Discs are likely seen as an impediment,” while digital purchases can potentially follow players across consoles, PCs, handhelds, and cloud streaming.

What does physical ownership actually mean?

Once the game itself no longer has to live on the disc or cartridge, the physical object has a different job.

Switch 2 Game-Key Cards are a good example: they contain no game data, but the card still behaves much like a traditional physical copy once the software has been downloaded. "Game-Key Cards are not single-use codes and allow for lending and resale," McWhirter says. "They also do not require a Nintendo eShop account."

Gresham thinks that idea could eventually move beyond familiar game media altogether, with a physical token representing the purchase – potentially something as simple as a flash drive.

A code in a box works very differently. Redeem one of those and the game becomes tied to your digital account, leaving the physical package with no transferable copy to lend or sell. In practical terms, a Game-Key Card with no game stored on it can preserve more of the freedoms associated with physical ownership than a lavish collector’s edition containing a download code.

The weak spot is the download itself. A fresh Game-Key Card installation still depends on the game data being available online, although McWhirter notes that data can also be transferred locally between Switch 2 handsets.

Gresham thinks the same questions will increasingly matter for digital purchases too: "For consumers, the merit of any digital solution will come down to what rights come associated with their purchase.

"Can access be revoked, and does it depend on platform servers? Can the game be played offline? Can I transfer or resell it? Will access be available in 20+ years?"

Nintendo’s Virtual Game Card system already shows one possible direction, bringing some physical-style lending to digital purchases. Gresham points to PC as a contrast, where competition between storefronts helped encourage less restrictive approaches to digital licensing; console platforms already have integrated digital ecosystems, leaving them with far less incentive to offer the same freedoms.

Why the box survives

Even if the disc disappears, there are still good reasons to keep something on the shelf. Boxed games remain useful for gifting and retail, while the packaging itself can carry value for players who want something tangible from a favourite release. Case in point: I still have my GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 boxes on display.

Sony has already said that new PlayStation games will continue to be sold through retailers after disc production ends in January 2028, albeit in digital formats. McWhirter expects that to mean packaged code-in-a-box releases.

Whether a download code can simply take the disc’s place is less certain. McWhirter points out that code-in-a-box releases on Switch have generally worked better later in a game’s life, when publishers want a cheaper reprint without committing to another run of cartridges. "And because code-in-a-box is rarely associated with day-and-date releases, they tend to end up in supermarkets at discount prices," he says.

GTA 6 could prove that model can work at launch, although few games can count on anything like its level of demand – or, at the time of writing, level of leaks.

At the other end of the market, physical games may become more elaborate. Gresham sees a parallel with music, where streaming handles most everyday listening while vinyl and other physical formats cater to fans who want to collect.

"There’s a very good chance that physical games become increasingly collector-focused," he says. Gresham argues that digital deluxe editions generally struggle to command the same premium because they lack the perceived scarcity and tangibility of a physical collector’s edition.

McWhirter also points to specialist publishers already producing physical versions of digital games in the low thousands, often selling them at a premium through Amazon or direct. As mainstream volumes fall, that model could become increasingly important – leaving the traditional boxed disc squeezed between cheap digital access and physical editions made specifically for people who really want them.

By 2030, that could leave mass-market retail selling boxes that mainly deliver digital access, while genuinely physical releases increasingly cater to enthusiasts willing to pay for them.

So what is a "physical game" in 2030?

By the end of the decade, "physical" may tell us surprisingly little about where a game lives; the box could contain the actual software or unlock a download. For some, it might simply give you something tangible to put on a shelf.

Can you lend it, resell it, play it offline, or still access it years later? A Game-Key Card and a code-in-a-box might look equally physical at the checkout, but they can leave the buyer with very different rights once they get home.

Perhaps the better question in 2030 won’t be whether a game is physical, but what the thing you’ve bought actually lets you do.

More from Saturday Read: "It really is accepting of everybody": How Games Done Quick uses community to make a difference.

There are many, many, many new games being released in the next few weeks, and up until a few moments ago, you could've counted Rayman Legends Retold among them. Ubisoft has just announced that the platformer remake has gone gold, but it's also been delayed out of the absurd game rush that we're currently being crushed under.

"Rayman Legends Retold will release on December 3rd," Ubisoft says in a message on Bluesky. "While the game has officially gone gold, we have decided to take extra time to make sure every detail gets the care it deserves."

I'm not sure I've ever seen a simultaneous announcement that a game's both been delayed and gone gold. Historically, going gold meant that a game had been finalized as its discs went off to manufacturing, but the term's come to mean a lot less in the modern era of digital distribution and day one patches. As with many Ubisoft titles, the front of Rayman Legends Retold's box warns that "internet is required to install the game," so I'm honestly not sure how gold any of this really is.

The game had previously been set to launch on October 1, right in between the likes of – deep breath – Marvel's Wolverine, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, Silent Hill: Townfall, Control Resonant, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered, Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve, Gears of War: E-Day, Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, and many more. Even as somebody who absolutely loves 2D platformers, I'd have had a hard time justifying putting my time into Rayman given that competition.

Ubisoft's statement suggests that the game's delay is more about polish than avoiding the competition, and it's now one of very few games willing to brave the post-GTA 6 weeks of 2026. Who knows – maybe the adventures of Rayman and the crew will be just the palette cleanser we all need in between whatever shenanigans we're getting up to with Jason and Lucia.

Rayman Legends Retold has me struggling to justify its place as a remake, but with platforming this good I can't complain.

In a surprising – yet very welcome – move, Ubisoft is opting to trade in its required launcher on PC for more seamless, built-in connectivity that allows players to navigate games through Steam… and Steam only.

It's a tale as old as time: a company outside of Valve requires players to use its own launcher, even if they're accessing a game through Steam. EA immediately springs to mind, as does Ubisoft, but the latter is apparently looking to scrap this pesky system in favor of a smoother experience for fans who don't appreciate a billion log-ins and pop-ups.

It reveals as much in some minor new patch notes for Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown over on Steam.

"Introducing Ubisoft Connect Services," Ubisoft's announcement begins, dubbing the new integration "a simpler launch experience on Steam" – which, yeah, it certainly sounds like it is.

"Starting with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, we are testing a new Ubisoft Connect Services Steam tool that keeps Ubisoft game features such as cross-progression, cross-play, player safety, challenges and rewards, among others."

What's new, though? Well, it's all "without requiring the Ubisoft Connect PC launcher to be installed or launched."

As Ubisoft says, "This first version is an initial step toward a smoother and more streamlined launch experience on Steam. We will continue to iterate and improve Ubisoft Connect Services over time, with the goal of delivering the features and services players use and expect while making the Steam experience as seamless as possible."

It won't stop with Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, either. "Ubisoft Connect Services will progressively evolve and roll out to more Ubisoft games on Steam in the future." That's quite exciting, to say the least, seeing as pretty much nobody would prefer the current system.

Over on Reddit, folks are discussing the new system, and, yeah, they're thrilled. "Imagine how much they had to lose to admit this was needed," reads the top comment.

"Finally," another exclaims. "Now add this for all previous titles, and I will buy Ubisoft games again!" And, thankfully, it sounds like that's precisely what Ubisoft plans to do… and hopefully carries onto new games down the line as well.

Xbox disc-to-digital missing Elden Ring and Final Fantasy as publishers including Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Ubisoft, and Sega seemingly skip the feature.

Ubisoft, Sega, Bandai Namco, and Square Enix are reportedly some of the publishers who are not supporting the Xbox disc-to-digital program, leading to concerns of the initiative's viability as a preservation tool.

Microsoft announced its disc-to-digital initiative for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One games last month, and at the end of the month, users on the Xbox Insider Program were able to access the feature in a beta form. This led to interesting discoveries like Activision's Deadpool, Transformers: Devastation and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, as well as assorted titles from other publishers like Rock Band 4 and Lego Dimensions being available despite being delisted from digital stores.

However, unfortunately, Xbox Insider users have seemingly discovered another piece of the puzzle. As reported by users on Reddit, Ubisoft-published games are completely locked out of the program, with a message that reads, "This game is not participating in digital licensing." And since then, players on Reddit have reported the same thing is the case for Sega, Square Enix, and Bandai Namco, which in turn means every FromSoftware game, barring Sekiro, is unavailable on the service.

Sega is particularly interesting given that Sega president Shuji Utsumi pledged his support for physical games following Sony's announcement it's abandoning preservation by killing PS5 discs. On top of that, Sega has been a big supporter of the likes of Xbox Game Pass and Play Anywhere, so many are disappointed to see it seemingly isn't on board with this. However, the feature is still in beta, so hopefully Sega and others get on board once it's out in public.

13 years after famous Microsoft dunk, ex-PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida says Xbox disc-to-digital feature is "a great move"

If you've done a healthy amount of sailing around in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, you may have noticed a dog stuck on one of the disparate islands you encounter across the Caribbean. Until now you could only pet the pooch, without helping them get off their water-locked home, but a new update has remedied this disastrous situation.

Now, if you go to this little piece of land, sitting at 624,50, and you pet the canine wanderer - which you should always be doing regardless - they'll transport right over to Edward's hideout in Grand Inagua. How nice and convenient, right?

They're accompanied by a little letter, explaining how they managed to suddenly become experts of the seven seas. Another captain discovered the furry friend, and decided to take them aboard.

You can now save the stranded dog in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced!🔵 Head on to 624,50🔵 Pet the dog🔵 The dog will appear at the Great Inagua Hideout, in Edward's room at the villa🔵 You can also find a letter on how he got there!

— @accesstheanimus.com (@accesstheanimus.com.bsky.social) 2026-09-01T16:46:07.734Z

At first, the plan was for the dog to live on that boat, but this particular caninus maximus wants to be by your side. Once they reached port at Grand Inagua, they leapt off to wherever their nose was taking them.

Directly to your belongings, it seems, where it stays forevermore. Beautiful - I am always looking for more dogs to pet, and it's a distinct upgrade to now have one in my quarters. Assassination can sometimes be a lonely occupation, and it's made less so when I can have snuggles with this wee friend whenever I like.

Access the Animus posted a complete clip of finding the dog, and then the letter, as you can see above. It's smile-inducing. I would've liked the option to take the little compadre in myself on my ship, but you can't always have everything. For now, at least – Ubisoft, I have one demand for the next Assassin's Creed game.

OG Assassin's Creed Black Flag devs "had a lot of teething difficulties" trying to nail down the "seamless naval experience"

It may have taken seven years, but The Division 2 is finally getting crossplay. On top of that, we have more details on the latest expansion for Ubisoft's dystopian online action game, which adds a true New York City landmark.

First thing's first, though: crossplay. It's happening, at long last. The option is available across all platforms, and it'll be enabled by default. Clan size is going up to 100 to allow everyone to play together, and it'll launch in November. Clans will also be imported over, whereas leaderboards are going to be reset.

"Bringing Agents together across platforms has required significant work behind the scenes, including partially rebuilding the game’s online architecture," Ubisoft writes. "With crossplay, your platform will no longer stand between you and other Agents, opening up matchmaking and allowing more of the community to play together."

This is well overdue, but the fact some of the release's inner workings needed tinkering helps explain why it's taken so long. Making these facets a reality is often much more complicated than it may seem on the surface.

Besides getting crossplay, the new DLC is called Echoes of Central Park, focusing on the well-trodden area. In the darkened world of The Division 2, the park was used to bury bodies and left to grow out over the years. Nobody's sure what's going on in there now, but something's happening that pulls players towards the endless urban forestry.

"The expansion begins with a distress call coming from somewhere inside the park. Across the Upper West Side, rumors are spreading about what lies beyond its gates," reads the official description. "Agents will need to investigate those reports, prepare for what lies ahead, and eventually enter Central Park to uncover what has happened there since the outbreak."

It sounds very The Last of Us, and that's a compliment. A deeper dive into Echoes of Central Park is coming September 24, so mark the date. There's plenty of life in The Division 2 yet, it seems.

Speedrunner turns one of Metal Gear Solid 4's biggest bosses into a total pushover using the power of Master Collection Vol 2's enhanced framerate

It seems Ubisoft is creating its own version of Steam Early Access. At Gamescom 2026, the publisher revealed a platform for players to check out in-development versions of certain games and provide feedback over an ongoing period.

The forum is known as The Player Council, and it's essentially a preview portal that allows for more direct contact between devs and their potential audience. "Participating players will be able to discover and weigh in on games at various stages of development, including new game concepts and prototypes as well as evolving experiences for existing games on PC," reads a press release.

"The Player Council gives you valuable insight into the development process and unprecedented access to shape a game in its earliest stages," Ubisoft adds.

It all sounds like what early access is meant for on Valve's marketplace. You put the game up in an unpolished state, and let people play it to see where refinement is most needed, while getting much needed funding through their purchase in the process.

The latter isn't necessary, since Ubisoft is already funding the projects, but the former seems like it could be extremely insightful. Getting involved is free and straightforward, it just requires signing a general NDA, then you can request to be part of the testing for various upcoming releases. If chosen for those games, you'll then become part of a smaller community where you can mingle and share your thoughts.

Devs will respond in kind, and the more you contribute, the more you'll unlock the capacity to do the same for other games. The last part seems like a gimmick, but some impetus to actually be a contributing part of the council, as it were, always helps these sorts of things.

There are four projects to dig into from the get -go, three multiplayer games and one single-player release. They are PvP tactics game Codename Split Point; strategy game Codename Rook; online open-world extreme sports playground Riders Republic; and an "evolutionary twist" on the 2017 FPS Altomega.

Of those, Riders Republic has me the most keen, but that's probably the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater fan in me. "There is no cost to test prototypes, while testing live game content is available to participants who already own the game," Ubisoft clarified to finish.

The Players Council is open now on PC.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is now the highest-rated game in the series on Steam, and it's all thanks to Christopher Nolan's new movie

Ubisoft has revealed Rainbow Six Tactics, a single-player turn-based strategy game set to launch in 2027.

In the works at Mario + Rabbids co-developer Ubisoft Paris, the game will see players running the Rainbow Six organization – led by Vegas protagonist Paul Bishop – as it works to counter a global threat, with 15 recruitable operators from Siege available.

Rainbow Six Tactics is structured like XCOM, in the sense that players will deploy units into turn-based combat while managing resources and developing facilities between missions.

The game is being developed at Ubisoft Paris, where the vision is to create something that appeals to both older Vegas fans and modern Siege players.

"Rainbow Six embeds a lot of tactics in its DNA," Martial Potron, game director, tells GamesRadar+. "It has always been called a tactical shooter. From the very beginning, you had this planning mode where you could set up your squad and decide where they would go while you were playing in the FPS mode. And even in Siege now, they keep a lot of tactical elements [...] It was a fantastic opportunity to twist it and offer a game that uses the same DNA for players who want to experience it differently."

I've spent hours organizing the perfect raid in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2's Terrorist Hunt mode, but couldn't crack Siege despite many attempts – so Potron's speaking my language. Ubisoft Montreal, which develops Rainbow Six Siege, thought so too.

"We had absolutely no issue convincing the Rainbow Six team that it was a good idea," says Potron. "We are really grateful that the team in Montreal, Vantage [Ubisoft's recently-formed subsidiary], and Ubisoft in general, let us do this game."

While the XCOM comparisons are obvious, Rainbow Six Tactics has recon and breaching features that go further than anything I've seen in modern XCOM.

There will be no fog of war outside, as the Rainbow Six team has aerial support to feed them intel, but indoors are hidden – meaning you need to use Siege's small recon drones to scope out interiors, clocking unit positions and weapons, to make plans.

You can then queue up breaching commands, which are then carried out at once – and with fully-destructible environments, you can (literally and metaphorically) hit buildings like a sledgehammer.

Rainbow Six Tactics doesn't have an exact release date beyond its 2027 window, but keep an eye on GamesRadar+ for our full chat with Potron going live soon.

Searching for something else to look forward to? Browse through our roundup of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond for more.

It seems like the best advertising a game could ask for is actually in cinemas. On the back of Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster, Assassin's Creed Odyssey is now the highest-rated installment of the series on Steam.

At the time of writing, the 11th mainline Assassin's Creed game has a lovely 89% positive Steam review rating. That now places it above the previous top-tier entry, the long-reigning Assassin's Creed 2, which has 86% on Valve's marketplace based on overall reviews.

Unfortunately, Renaissance-era Italy isn't anywhere to be seen among this year's biggest films. Homer's Odyssey, on the other hand, happens to be the source material for the man behind Inception, Interstellar, and The Dark Knight's new cinematic venture.

Nolan adapts the epic poem with all the grandeur and spectacle you'd hope for. You've got a gigantic animatronic cyclops, a healthy amount of body horror, the Trojan Horse, Scylla and Charybdis, and plenty of the twists and turns from the classic tale.

The picture has proven to be one of Nolan's biggest, bringing in over $1.446 billion at the box office globally. Not bad for yet another film where Matt Damon needs to find his way home, and the catalyst for an enormous boon in interest for Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

I mean, it makes sense, right? You come out of a screening, mesmerized, then go looking for a similar game, to find Ubisoft made a nice big open-world adventure set in ancient Greece. Perfect. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 is enjoying a similar crossover, since Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now the fifth highest-grossing film ever.

Funnily enough, Tom Holland stars in both movies. Jon Bernthal co-stars in them too. Maybe their combination is the secret ingredient. Sadly, I don't think more marketing departments can afford them, never mind bankrolling a Hollywood production.

Assassin's Creed 2 was supposed to cover Brotherhood's entire plot, but that was "way too ambitious to deliver properly" in just one game

Even after all these years, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is arguably still the peak of the series. After Assassin's Creed 2 sanded off the clunky edges of the original game, Brotherhood offered a natural continuation of Ezio's story and expanded gameplay elements tied to his increasing leadership of the titular assassins. It's no wonder the sequel seemed so natural, since Ubisoft had apparently planned for the events of Brotherhood to be part of the plot in Assassin's Creed 2.

"When we designed Assassin's Creed II, Ezio's story arc was roughly from his birth to him becoming the mentor," Jean Guesdon, a series veteran who now serves as head of content for the franchise, says in an interview for Retro Gamer #287. Ezio's ascension as the mentor of the assassins' order would ultimately occur near the end of Brotherhood, just before the game's climactic final chapters.

There's no telling how the story would've changed or been condensed if it had been told within a single game, but it sounds like the developers themselves soon decided that wouldn't be possible anyway. "In practice this was way too ambitious to deliver properly in one game developed in two years," Guesdon continues. "But these original ideas allowed us to develop his story through the next two games."

Ezio's story would ultimately conclude in Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which launched a year after Brotherhood. The Ezio trilogy would start Assassin's Creed on the path of annual releases that the series would follow for years, making even the two-year dev cycle that Assassin's Creed 2 seem luxurious by comparison.

By this time, Ubisoft was already starting to spread development across multiple studios in order to release new games faster. "The games are not developed one after another," according to Paul Fu, another longtime series veteran who most recently served as creative director on Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced. "They are always cascaded so that we can work in tandem."

"At first we made sure to keep the creative and production control in Montreal, where the experience was, but giving mandates to other Ubisoft studios in order to make them grow," Guesdon continues. "This is how, year after year, the basin of AC developers grew in terms of size, but also experience, allowing us to send more and more ambitious mandates to remote studios."

That style of development has made possible epics like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Shadows, each of which absolutely dwarfs even the combined scale of Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood. I still miss the days when the series was a little more constrained in scope, but I guess I'll always have the Ezio games to go back to.

Check out our rankings of the best Assassin's Creed games.

Months after Ubisoft cancelled the remake of the PS2 classic, GOG has released an enhanced version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

One of the weirdest projects of the decade has been Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Announced in 2020, the project was scheduled to release in January 2021 developed by Ubisoft Mumbai and Ubisoft Pune, but after delays the game was subject to a complete development reboot in 2023 at Ubisoft Montreal, and as recently as last year, Ubisoft was saying it'd release this year, with rumors of a shadowdrop appearing. However, it was cancelled amid a "major reset" in January bringing its development hell to an end.

When the cancellation happened, GOG confirmed that it was working to bring the original version of the classic action game to its GOG Preservation Program as soon as possible. At the time, the post on Twitter said "We are pouring our hearts into making sure the original Sands of Time does not just run fine. We will make sure it is the best version you have ever played," and now seven months later we know what that entails.

Earlier today the GOG Classics Vault YouTube channel released a video confirming that its release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is out now, and detailed some of the changes included in this release. Improvements include fixing modern hardware incompatibilities, widescreen and ultrawide support for modern resolutions and aspect ratios and the ability to limit your FPS and a setting to automatically your FOV based on aspect ratio. In the video GOG's Adim explains "Ubisoft's remake was officially cancelled, so we took the matters into our own hands" and adds, "It is a masterpiece game design and it deserves to be played as intended."

OG Assassin's Creed Black Flag devs "had a lot of teething difficulties" trying to nail down the "seamless naval experience."

Better late than never, even when it comes to overdue mechanical changes in video games. A huge update to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands added an option the community's been requesting since launch, and fans are rightfully stoked.

Just yesterday, the Last Rites update hit Ghost Recon Wildlands. Part of the 25th anniversary celebrations for the series, this introduces a new mission and a wealth of changes to the shooter, including several much-requested tweaks.

One such change is that you can select only having one primary weapon without being in ghost mode. Previously, players had to have two, regardless of their loadout selection or strategic approach, a choice that was wasteful at best and cumbersome at worst.

Hopes for this stretch right back through the strategic shooter's history. You can find Reddit threads dedicated to the subject going back eight years, and there are others on the likes of GameFAQs, with fans asking whether or not such a thing is possible.

Well, it finally is. "First thing I adjusted. This update is absolute fire so far!" says one player on Reddit. "Ubisoft gained some respect from me with this," another adds.

Being a nine-year-old game, Wildlands doesn't get many updates these days. In fact, it's been years since Ubisoft rolled out a substantial patch for the release, making this a very welcome surprise.

To make it even better, both Wildlands and its sequel, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, have free weekends going right now, August 7 through August 10. Perfect opportunity to enjoy the spoils of being able to select how many primary weapons you can carry - and the rest of the game too, I suppose.

Gears of War: E-Day's Steam player peak has already passed the series' all-time record, and it's still only in limited beta

A new Ghost Recon game is on the way from Ubisoft, and the devs are "ready to put it to the test" as fans are encouraged to sign up for closed tests to help shape the title with their feedback.

Last month, Ubisoft hinted that going forward – specifically, looking to its 2027-2028 and 2028-2029 fiscal years – its "content pipeline" of big brands including Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Ghost Recon is expected to be "significantly bigger" than its current lighter slate. That certainly suggested that we could expect more Ghost Recon at some point soon, but now, it sounds like that'll be happening quite imminently.

Speaking during today's Ghost Recon 25th Anniversary stream, live producer Irina-Gabriela Popa delivers the news that fans have been hoping for. "For the past few years, we've been building the next chapter of Ghost Recon," she says. "I'm really excited to share with you that now we're ready to put it to the test, because we want to deliver a fun, fresh experience that stays true to everything that defines Ghost Recon: tactical action, large scale operations, credible military storytelling, and of course, the Ghost Unit."

Fans are encouraged to sign up to Ghost Recon's Insider Program, which will grant early access to closed tests. Ubisoft will use the feedback gained from these to optimize and balance the upcoming game.

What's not currently clear is when the first of these closed tests might be – the fact that the devs are apparently "ready" to test the game definitely implies we won't be waiting long, but at the time of writing, no dates have been given.

For now, at least, we can hold onto the promise of a faithful but fresh experience – seven years since Breakpoint and four since the cancellation of Ghost Recon: Frontline, it's about time fans got fed.

Be sure to check out our roundup of upcoming Ubisoft games to see what else the company has in the works.

The joy of gaming is often in getting stuck in for yourself. But, returning to Ghost Recon Wildlands for its new, free Last Rites update (part of the series' 25th anniversary celebration), I'm reminded that there's also something special about not getting your hands dirty. I crawl on my elbows towards an enemy outpost, pop up my drone-cam to scout the area, and command my squad to cover marked enemies before I give the command to silently open fire on them all in sync, staying undetected.

Slow and steady can feel as good as going in guns blazing, and the joy of Ghost Recon is in making that tactical pace feel like a real thrill. Having an excuse to revisit Ghost Recon Wildlands makes for some of the most exciting open world stealth I've experienced since my last Metal Gear Solid 5 replay (or the more fantasy-tinged Styx: Blades of Greed). In a gaming landscape where even the best shooters grow more reliant on explosive set-pieces, I'm overjoyed to return to something a bit more cerebral with Ghost Recon Wildlands – Last Rites.

Ghost revisitation

For some reason the first new Ghost Recon content we've had in years has been added for free to Wildlands, first released in 2017, which isn't even the most recent game in the series. 2019's entry was, however, more divisive – we called it "ridiculously repetitive" in our Ghost Recon Breakpoint review. That might be because Wildlands' Bolivian setting – despite causing a diplomatic incident – still feels more ripe with possibility that Breakpoint's archipelago. Even in the base game, the scale and density of Bolivia always left you with the feeling that there was more to discover.

Ghost Recon Wildlands – Last Rites sees the four-person Ghost Squad (though you can play solo with no companions still, if you wish) called back to Bolivia after several years to tie up loose ends from their original mission, centering on the emergence of a new faction, a cult led by the mask-wearing La Llorona. At odds with UNIDAD (who have also returned – if only to provide a reason for their camps to be repopulated), this shadowy group worships their leader like a religious figure. Though her identity is secret, it seems she has history with the CIA, who are the ones that task Ghost Squad with quashing this uprising.

In practice, Last Rites forms six missions, essentially making La Llorna herself an extra one of the many boss nodes that scatter the base game's map, with her influence spanning just a few regions of Bolivia. Early missions push Ghost Squad out of their comfort zone as they secure evidence of La Llorna's existence from UNIDAD compounds are highlights, and there's a creepy sense that they've been thrust into a conflict beyond their understanding as they stumble upon some very grisly scenes a few steps behind the cult.

As usual, part of the joy of these Wildlands missions is how you're free to choose your own method of approach – whether that's going in guns blazing or sticking to the shadows, or literally adjusting your direction of entry. One has me trading a truck for a motorbike, going off-road over a mountain so me and the squad can snipe our way through a base from the high ground rather than try to drive through blockades towards the booby-trapped entrance to a cultist outpost. Another has me liberating an impressive arsenal from a cult armory that I can then take into the next mission to give myself an advantage (though I lose it all when I gleefully drift into a pile of explosives and we all immediately perish).

Six missions can only sustain so much, however, and it leaves the ending of this storyline feeling a bit rushed. It feels rotten to grumble about free content, but it speaks to the strength of Last Rites' set-up that I wish there was more to this. La Llorna is just as compelling an antagonist as the base game's El Sueño, if not more so, so there's the sense that something is off when he has a massive network that fuels the whole base game, whereas La Llorna is taken out by Ghost Squad in just a handful of missions. Though, as part of the anniversary, Ubisoft has teased that development of a new game in the series is well underway. Leaving us wanting more is definitely part of the plan with Last Rites, and who knows – maybe La Llorna's influence could persist in a new entry?

As well as the Last Rites story expansion, Ghost Recon Wildlands has received a big update with a list of huge improvements – 4K/60fps support on PS5 and Xbox Series X, new customization options from gear to difficulty and other gameplay parameters, and the restoration of previously time-limited content including the Predator crossover (who killed me and my squad many times). Personally, I love it when late updates to games do away with FOMO and restore previously limited content. It feels like a real celebration.

But, Ghost Recon Wildlands still feels like a game from 2017. Even on a PC with the settings cranked up to ultra, it's pretty but you can see the cracks. Both enemy and squad AI can get more than a little wonky. There are plenty of animation bugs, ranging from me permanently getting stuck in a 'caught in a beartrap' pose that forced me to restart from a checkpoint, to having a squad member respawn within a truck as we made a fast exit out of an enemy base only to have them glued in a standing and firing position to the exterior of the door itself.

Yet, expecting perfection in any game – even a modern release – is exhausting. Video games are playful creations with so many moving parts that seeing the cracks just proves actual people made them. Even the most famous paintings in the world have some odd brushtrokes. Even James Cameron is willing to leave in a shot that includes the camera lens being wiped with a cloth.

In the grand scheme of things, these moments will feel unobtrusive, ideally any annoyance lost in a sea of much better points. Ghost Recon Wildlands has plenty of issues, but returning to it all these years later, the simple joy of tackling a massive open world full of baddies to track down and defeat makes for a great mission sandbox, like a soupy mix between Far Cry 3 and Metal Gear Solid 5, with a touch of Watch Dogs 2 with its drone-based enemy marking.

Back then, shooters felt over-stuffed with this sort of thing, with plenty of franchises chasing the open world bone, and it made Wildlands – despite its unique blend of mechanics – struggle to stand out. Revisiting it now, it's almost refreshing. It makes me wonder how many older games could be revitalized with an injection of new content.

In a struggling games industry with bloated game budgets and production schedules, where dropping the cash on a major new hit may still not return enough revenue to keep creatives employed, I'm not the only one thinking this could be the move. After all, even The Witcher 3 is getting new DLC with Songs of the Past. If this becomes a trend, I'm fine with it – my backlog may be heaving with more potential than I realized.

Check out our best open world games list for more big adventures, and our best Tom Clancy games ranking for more espionage.

An Assassin's Creed veteran who directed Valhalla and served as lead designer on the OG Black Flag and more has returned to Ubisoft as the series' game director.

Eric Baptizat spent almost 16 full years at Ubisoft between 2005 and 2021, during which time he was credited with lead roles on the two aforementioned games, as well as Assassin's Creed: Origins and Unity, before moving to EA's Motive Studio to direct Battlefield 6 and the Dead Space remake. Now, as announced by the Assassin's Creed series' head of content Jean Guesdon, Baptizat is back.

"After an incredible professional journey, including 16 years at Ubisoft and then leading the critically acclaimed Dead Space remake at EA Motive, Eric Baptizat is coming back to the Assassin's Creed family as our new Game Director for the brand," Guesdon announces in a new LinkedIn post.

"Éric needs no introduction in this universe. 16 years at Ubisoft, key contributions to Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla as Game Director, his passion for gameplay craft and his deep connection to this franchise speak for themselves," he continues. "Seeing someone with his expertise, his rigor, and his collaborative spirit step into this role fills me with confidence and honestly, a lot of excitement, for what's ahead for the brand."

Baptizat isn't the first veteran Ubisoft has rehired like this – ironically, the same happened with Guesdon himself. He spent 17 years at the company between 2005 and 2023 before departing, and was later appointed head of content this February, also taking over as creative director on Assassin's Creed Hexe following the departure of Clint Hocking (in what was, in fact, his second time leaving the company).

Things haven't exactly been smooth sailing at Ubisoft recently. At the start of the year, it was announced that the company was undergoing a "major reset," which led to six games being canceled. This same reset saw production split into different "creative houses" tasked with the development of different series – Vantage Studios, for example, includes the likes of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. That's the same one that was backed by Tencent.

Clearly, it's in Ubisoft's interest to smooth things out – Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has had a very strong start, but there are a bunch of other upcoming Assassin's Creed games on the horizon, including Assassin's Creed Hexe, Jade, and Invictus. Hopefully, Baptizat will be able to help get these out the door successfully to keep things moving in the right direction.

OG Assassin's Creed Black Flag devs "had a lot of teething difficulties" trying to nail down the "seamless naval experience."

PATCH NOTES v04.08.2026 – Ubisoft and Insomniac Games are enjoying a healthy boost to player counts across Assassin's Creed and Spider-Man games off the back of cinema blockbusters, with numbers so staggering it points to an exciting new normal for the relationship between how games and movies help one another extend experiences.

What's going on this week in gaming?

• 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey's active player count is surging
• Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered returns to Steam's Top 10 best-selling games list

Why is this happening now?

• Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has reignited interest in the Ancient Greek time period
• Spider-Man: Brand New Day secures second-biggest opening weekend in box office history

The Hollywood Patch is live

• The last week has been a reminder that sometimes the box office can deliver just as meaningful of a live video game update as its developers

It's unusual to see such vast spikes in sales and player counts of older games like Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Marvel's Spider-Man, and in this case, blockbuster movies are the driving forces. It highlights a shift in the way that people are interacting with big adaptations, as they search for ways to stay in these worlds once the credits roll.

Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey has become a monocultural moment, dominating cinemas and conversation for weeks. It's also sending players straight back to Assassin's Creed Odyssey, with analysts estimating that the 2018 release has seen a 90% player engagement jump in the 10 days following the film's release.

AC Odyssey features a lot of the same mythology as Nolan's latest despite not actually being about Homer's Odyssey at all, and with RPGs having a bit of a moment in the 2020s, it makes sense that vast open-world games that feature similar themes, settings, or characters as a major film can receive a second wind by association.

A similar trend is emerging out of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, though this time via direct brand synergy. The film has reportedly brought in $927 million across its opening weekend, success which has inspired Marvel's Spider-Man and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 to launch back into Steam's top 10 best-sellers. For Sony and PlayStation, it's proof that a great movie can be as effective as a big game update.

Meta Shift

Both The Odyssey and Spider-Man: Brand New Day demonstrate how successful movies can help revitalize older games of a similar or shared IP. Assassin's Creed Odyssey has immediately become a go-to game to play after watching The Odyssey, featuring many mythological elements seen in the film's epic poem source material, while sales of the Marvel's Spider-Man games have benefitted from a timely Steam sale in line with Brand New Day's launch.

The trend of film-game crossover speaks to more than just the enduring success of select franchises. We've seen a general increase in licensed game adaptations (or brand new instalments) of movie IPs as of late, with 007 First Light and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle being two notable new games that center on icons of the big screen. There's even an untitled John Wick game also in the works from Saber Interactive!

Paired with Halloween: The Game and Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival, two licensed upcoming horror games launching in 2026 that feature some of the most famous names in the biz, the potential for symbiotic success as film IPs cross over to gaming is stronger than ever.

But will it work the other way? I'll be interested to see how the new Zelda movie affects sales of games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, for example, and the same can be said of the numerous other upcoming video game movies out there. Me and my colleagues on the GamesRadar+ team often find ourselves on a bit of an IP kick after a fresh release, be it film or gaming. That's just how fandom works, and gone are the days where movie prestige outpaced that of video games.

Patch Notes summary

Ancient Greek-set Assassin's Creed Odyssey has seen a 90% increase in active players as Christopher Nolan's take on The Odyssey storms theaters. At the same time, the Marvel's Spider-Man games have soared into the Top 10 Best-sellers list on Steam, bolstered by an attractive discount to celebrate Spider-Man: Brand New Day's opening weekend.

It's clear that fans are seeking to extend their experiences of both film and video games by helping themselves to both. It just goes to show how the power of an excellent IP can bring years-old games back out of retirement – even if you might have to dust off an old console or take advantage of a Steam sale to make it happen.

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While sailing was a massive part of the Assassin's Creed Black Flag experience, the devs say it was a trial to get it working in the first place.

While sailing was technically introduced earlier in the series thanks to some segments in Assassin's Creed 3, it became the whole basis of the next game in the series. Speaking to Retro Gamer magazine, Jean Guesdon, creative director on Black Flag, explains, "One of the first key decisions was to reuse everything we could."

Despite a test-run in AC3's American Northeast the year prior, Guesdon says it wasn't quite as simple as bringing that over into the next game. This was mainly thanks to the scale of the sailing being expanded. He adds, "We had a lot of teething difficulties trying to move from focused naval missions to a seamless naval experience."

Of course, it wouldn't be the end of sailing, as Ubisoft would soon go into the Skull and Bones mines for about a decade before releasing that to… being released. But its development probably helped in the creation of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced this year, so piracy lives on once more.

While I'm admittedly not really into Ubisoft's biggest series, I have always had a very big soft spot for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. Maybe it's because, in many ways, it really doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game as the pirate fantasy elements take center stage. I don't even think I finished it entirely as I just enjoyed sailing the high seas and singing with the fellas too much.

If you're yet to play it yourself, you can read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey player count soared for the first time in years since Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey adaptation released earlier this month, according to data gathered by Alinea Analytics.

Alinea head of market analysis Rhys Elliott explains in a new post on Substack that, once The Odyssey zapped onto IMAX screens on July 17, "the cultural spillover into games was immediate." 10 days later, Ubisoft's 2018 ancient Greek adventure Assassin's Creed: Odyssey had nearly doubled its active player count, swelling from an approximate total of 122,000 players to 233,000 across platforms.

"That's a 90% surge in engagement," says Elliott, "at 1.8x the game's pre-film July baseline." But unlike the Greeks as they piled into their Trojan horse, most recent Assassin's Creed: Odyssey players are unwilling to risk more than a boring afternoon. Only 26% of the action RPG's new recruits came from Steam, while PlayStation players went off like a car alarm up 94% to 114,000 daily active users, and Xbox boomed plus-134% from 36,000 to 84,000 active users.

Probably, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's luck on console came from PS Plus and Game Pass subscribers – even with Game Pass currently limping toward death. Elliott says, "Lapsed fans jumped straight back in, while new players found a 60+ hour Greek epic waiting inside a subscription they already pay for."

Though, Nolan's The Odyssey also blessed Ubisoft's Odyssey with some fresh sales. "Software sales moved modestly at around 400K copies year-to-date," Elliott says, but the real news "is pure player engagement. The film didn't make millions buy an eight-year-old game, but it got a massive cohort playing it again. That data gives Ubisoft great ammunition for an eventual AC Odyssey Resynced."

The developer's recent Black Flag Resynced has been a gargantuan financial success for Ubisoft, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it capitalize further on Nolan fever – if it stops laying off devs long enough to do so.

Ubisoft had a very on-brand problem with Assassin's Creed Odyssey: there weren't many tall buildings in Ancient Greece even though it's a "climbing-frame game."

Xbox is making it easier for you to transfer your digital console library over to PC, at least when it comes to a select few Ubisoft titles.

In an official Xbox Wire news release, a total of 13 Ubisoft games are revealed to be part of a new "Xbox Console-to-PC Offer" program giving players the opportunity to play their Xbox games on PC "at no additional cost." Basically, it all works via the Ubisoft Connect app, which you can install on your PC and access the following games for free if you already own them on Xbox:

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• Far Cry 6
• Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Riders Republic
• Skull and Bones
• The Crew 2
• The Crew Motorfest
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Watch Dogs Legion

Thankfully, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of fine print here. Xbox says that starting today, if you buy any of the above games digitally, you'll immediately get both the Xbox and PC versions via Ubisoft Connect. Meanwhile, if you already own any of them, a "progressive rollout" will begin doling out PC versions starting on August 4.

In case you were wondering, as I was, the deal doesn't work the other way around, as Xbox says "you can only claim a free PC version" with this offer. Otherwise, "for most games," the edition of the game and any DLC you own will transfer right over to the PC version alongside any progress you've made so long as the game supports cross-progression.

This initiative is part of a newly expanded "partnership" between Xbox and Ubisoft that'll add "a broad selection" of digital games with premium editions to the Xbox app on PC. The full list hasn't been revealed, but some of the highlights include Assassin's Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Rainbow Six Siege, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Of course, the biggest caveat to all of this is something of an elephant in the room right now, as physical games don't appear to be included here. That's not surprising in the slightest given the nature of digital vs. physical entitlements, but it is yet another grain of salt in the wound for disc fans.

Xbox is down, just days after PlayStation outage, and it affects both digital and "disc-based" games

There aren't any explosive grenades in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, but a handy exploit lets you make some on the fly. Players have discovered a way to turn smoke bombs into impromptu fiery weapons to handle multiple enemies – but you really need to be careful when using it.

On Twitter, Assassin's Creed fan account Zephryss posted a clip of how it works. First, you throw the smoke bomb, and let it start filling the area. Then, using your pistol, shoot a bullet right at where it landed, and you'll get a nice little explosion. "Here's an insane secret trick," they say.

They include footage of them doing it a couple of times, across different areas and situations, to demonstrate how repeatable it is. In one of them, several enemies are approaching, and this tool of slight destruction takes a chunk of their health and bounces them back.

It's a fine addition to the toolkit of any assassin. Not very graceful, mind, but sometimes you need to just go for broke and do whatever you can to get out alive. That last part can be tricky, since many people are figuring this alternate way of using smoke bombs the hard way.

"THIS. THIS IS HOW I KEEP BLOWING MYSELF UP??" says one player in response to the clip from Zephryss. "I learned this the hard way when trying to get the trophy of kicking a [berserk] enemy in smoke off a ship," another adds. "Would accidentally pull out pistols and wonder wtf happened."

Now that word is getting around, there's a chance Ubisoft could patch this out if it's not intentional. I hope that doesn't happen, because this is definitely handier than it is a hurdle. But a primer on how to do it safely would help, lest more people wind up blowing Edward's face off completely by accident.

If you're yet to play it yourself, you can read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

Once you give players an ability, you really can't control how they use it. People can do whatever they like with a photo mode, as the devs behind Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced have discovered due to the amount of feet pics they've seen.

"There's just nothing like having one million or two million players playing a game at once that you can't replicate. The feet pics were very surprising," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "That's kind of what photo mode is there for – to take really interesting, sometimes unusual, photos."

I'm not surprised – internet loves doing things for the bit, and bizarre, slightly lewd photographs emerging from a new Assassin's Creed game is the exact kind of tomfoolery that goes over very well.

But I'm far too innocent for such things, because my most in-depth experience with photo mode was in Insomniac's Spider-Man games. I loved swinging around and making fake comic book covers. I've made dozens of them across the three installments.

Obviously, that's the wrong line of thinking. Pictures of Spider-Man are out, pictures of feet are in, apparently. "I never would have expected that one," Knight adds.

I have to imagine someone on the team thought it was a possibility, but what are you going to do? Restrict people's creativity? You've got to just let people do what they do, that's the real adventure of life.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance.

Even Ubisoft seems surprised you all wanted classic-style Assassin's Creed back this bad. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has sold 3.5 million units in 14 days, already beating the publisher's internal sales projections for the full year.

"The strong launch of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced in early July by Vantage Studios is an encouraging proof point" of Ubisoft's new corporate structure, CEO Yves Guillemot says in the company's latest financial report. That same restructuring has also cost numerous developers their jobs, including many of the very people who brought Black Flag Resynced to life.

Black Flag Resynced is the first Assassin's Creed game to reach over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. According to Ubisoft, "this translated into a historical proportion of sales for the franchise on PC, led by the US and Chinese markets."

As part of today's financial report, Ubisoft announced net bookings of €256 million for the first quarter of the fiscal year, "down 9% year-on-year and slightly above guidance." Notably, that does not include any boost from Black Flag Resynced sales, which launched just after the start of the second quarter. Instead, those first quarter revenues were "driven by a record performance for Invincible: Guarding the Globe," an idle RPG for mobile.

Clearly, though, Ubisoft expects investors to be pleased with the performance Resynced is going to show next quarter. "The game is the highest-rated Assassin's Creed title since the original Black Flag, and we are very pleased with the praise it received from players," Guillemot continues. "Two weeks in, the title has already exceeded the annual expectations we had. I would like to warmly thank the teams whose talent and dedication brought it to life. This launch illustrates the enduring appeal of the Assassin’s Creed brand, as well as the early benefits of our ongoing transformation and commitment to delivering very high-quality experiences."

Ubisoft CEO says ditching physical games "helped" PC gaming, and PlayStation ending discs won't "disturb" the industry much anyway.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seems largely in Sony's corner regarding the scheduled end to physical PlayStation games, going to bat for some advantages of an all-digital future.

Guillemot fielded a question about the January 2028 discontinuation of physical PlayStation games during Ubisoft's financial call earlier today.

One caller asked how Ubisoft feels about Sony's decision and if it has any worries about its direct or indirect effects, such as the end of the used games market which can enable gamers to pawn games and use those funds to buy new games.

"What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market," Guillemot replies. "There's also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, and being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would say. As you said, there are pluses and minuses. But we think it will not disturb, too much, the industry."

There are a couple of points to unpack here. PC gaming has been functionally digital-only for decades, and the popularity of Steam proves that a lot of people don't have a problem with digital games, even if that means licensing rather than owning them.

However, other storefronts are also available on PC, whereas PlayStation only has the PlayStation Store. Additionally, since Steam isn't built for any one hardware specification, it won't up and vanish alongside aging, unsupported hardware the way the PS3 and PS Vita stores will soon enough, and even if it did, we'd still have the likes of GOG. And as general use machines, computers make it much easier to back up and preserve games, so in digital game debates, PC and console aren't perfectly equal.

We have seen digital-only consoles used as a way to lower price points, and with AI data center-induced component droughts continually pushing platform holders to raise console prices, almost anything that can lower entry points will be welcomed as we stare down an increasingly likely $1,000 console generation. But the idea of losing physical games to the AI boom has not gone down well with many.

Digital-only PS5s are outselling disc versions today, according to analyst Daniel Ahmad – but roughly 70% of PS5s sold do have a disc drive. Likewise, many of the games that are actually available physically see much greater diversity in digital and physical sales split compared to the lopsided, collective figures that Sony touts as evidence of the shrinking physical market.

Two truths exist: physical copies are important and can sell well, and relatively few people buy physical games globally. People have already voted with their wallets in the enormous shift to digital games, but a relevant audience of physical buyers remains – it's just not relevant enough in Sony's eyes.

Nintendo is now selling some digital Switch 2 games $10 cheaper than physical versions – building out a more enthusiast market for the minority of people who do want boxes – but it's unclear how Sony's digital future could see savings handed down to players, if at all. Frankly, I wouldn't bet on it. The games industry's got multiple fires to put out and taking less money from players is generally not high on the to-do list. GTA 6 is digital-only, for instance, but it's still $80.

It's not just savings, either. Sony – and, let's not forget, publishers like Ubisoft – will earn more per copy from digital games, so it stands to earn a lot more if all game sales become digital, even if it does lose some users by abandoning discs. Obviously, this is also another reason digital PS5s are sold cheaper: Sony makes less up front, but much more off game sales, so it wants the digital option to be appealing.

Only 7 PlayStation games have sold over 100,000 physical copies in the US this year, says analyst, as commenters demand discs without buying them.

It's always fun to see what lurks just below what we can see in a video game through datamining and the like. You can find remnants of ideas that hit the cutting room floor, or perhaps suggestions of what's to come in DLC. A lead developer on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced respects the curiosity, but asks we don't put much stock in what's uncovered.

"Many games get datamined, it's very clever, I understand," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, says in an interview with JorRaptor (below). "Sometimes these are for assets that don't even exist yet, and sometimes they're placeholders that were done three years ago."

For projects as big as the Black Flag remake – or any triple-A game, really – all sorts of little curios and oddities tend to sneak into the finished product. Perhaps it was easier and faster to just cover something up than to take it out entirely, or, as Knight suggests, there was the kernel of an idea that didn't pan out, but you can still find a little marker, left however long ago in the game's past by god knows who.

They make for good discussion around the game's development, but holding people who worked on it to account for them is difficult. If they're placeholders, the devs genuinely might not remember what the point was, and if they're hints at what's coming, nobody will be allowed to talk about it yet.

Naturally, this comes up because JorRaptor asks about costumes that have been found in the game's innards. Multiple get-ups for Edward drawing on several entries from the storied franchise have been discovered, leading people to believe they indicate what's coming.

Knight is saying nothing, however. "This is my way of saying I don't actually know," he responds, remaining coy. "I can't spoil it because I don't know."

He does say whatever comes, the team will "support the brand legacy." Take that however you like.

If you're yet to set sail in the remake yourself, be sure to read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games in the series.

One fan-favorite feature in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has seemingly been patched out of the game, and players are begging Ubisoft to restore it.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced lets you toggle Edward's hood on and off with a quick press of a button while you're exploring the world, and until recently, it was also possible to do so at the most cinematic moments – during leaps of faith.

"In case you didn't know, you can toggle your hood while doing a leap of faith, and it looks awesome!" reads one Reddit post from 11 days ago, which was met with enthusiastic replies like "this is too damn cool!"

And apparently it really was too cool, because it's no longer in the game. "Did Ubisoft remove the ability to toggle your hood while sliding and leaping?" questions a more recent Reddit post shared after the game's latest patch, adding: "It was so cool, why did they patch that out? Is it just my game? Please tell me it's just a bug."

Unfortunately, it's not just their game. "Same for me. Heartbroken," reads one reply, as a fan on Twitter observes: "Ubisoft removed one of the best features in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced."

Looking through the patch notes for last week's title update 1.0.4, there's nothing that explicitly states that the option to toggle your hood while performing a leap of faith has been removed – I can't help but wonder if maybe it was tied to one of the more generic sounding changes, like "fixed various clothes clipping issues" or "fixed various character clipping issues." That, or its removal was a total mistake. Either way, though, folks are certainly making their disappointment known.

"PUT. IT. BACK," begs one fan, directly tagging Ubisoft. Another asks: "Pls put it backk it was a cool feature!!"

Whether Ubisoft listens remains to be seen, but the team has definitely been taking feedback on board. Game director Richard Knight recently confirmed that the team is working on an option to hide Edward's blowpipe, noting that "the feeling is mutual."

While you're here, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players have spotted a mysterious German cathedral they believe to be linked to Ubisoft's upcoming new mainline entry Assassin's Creed Hexe, in a part of the game that features landmarks from other entries in the series.

Replacing the modern day segments from the original game, Black Flag Resynced features various Animus Rifts, weird pieces of terrain that allow Edward to see alternate realities. For example, one of these rifts shows Edward the life he could have led if he'd kept his promise to his wife and returned home within two years.

However, one of the later rifts isn't about Edward as much as his ancestors, as he walks through an area featuring buildings from every "period two" game. We see structures from Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, Mirage, and Shadows, all of which are part of the Animus Hub, alongside a mysterious cathedral that points to the setting for the upcoming Hexe.

Some fans believe the building to be an old version of Würzburg Cathedral, a site which has been rebuilt many times over the years. Not only is the Bavarian city of Würzburg the location of one of the largest and most brutal witch trials in history, but it is also the setting proposed in a previous leak, adding more fuel to the rumor's roaring fire.

Very little is known about Assassin's Creed Hexe aside from the fact that it will be set during one of history's many witch trials. However, given that Hexe is the German word for witch, we're thinking it's more likely to feature sauerkraut than Salem.

While this doesn't confirm that Würzburg will be the setting for Hexe, the hints are certainly mounting in favor of the German city being the next Assassin's Creed hot spot.

Assassin's Creed Hexe setting potentially leaked as a witchy German city, and Ubisoft fans think it's "the best possible outcome."

Assassin's Creed Hexe is a mystery. The follow-up to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is so unknown that all its fans have to go on is a Blair Witch-style logo and a series of high-profile departures that threaten its very existence. But what you, the uninitiated, may not know, is that there's a pattern running through the entire series that gives away a lot more about the upcoming Assassin's Creed game than you might think.

Since the beginning of the series, every mainline Assassin's Creed protagonist has taken it in turns to be either a Nerd or a Bastard. The former are those characters who are steeped in the Creed and all it stands for; stoic, stalwart, disciplined. The latter are those who use their skills as much for their personal amusement as anything else. Taking down Templars might be their duty, but it can also be good fun - and it won't necessarily get in the way of a good time once the Bastard is off the clock.

If you're not prepared to take my word for it, I'm happy to show my working. I've enlisted the help of GamesRadar+'s cabal of AC experts to help fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and while there are a few grey areas (and while we're not counting games like Rogue, Liberation, or Freedom Cry), my theory holds up.

History lesson

We start with a nerd. When we first meet Altair Ibn-La'Ahad in the first Assassin's Creed, he's embedded deep within the Brotherhood and its teachings, at a time when its mission seems critical to his homeland's survival. He is calculating, serious, and entirely absorbed in his task. It's a collection of character traits that make him the proto-nerd, especially when you compare him to his immediate successor.

Jumping ahead to Assassin's Creed 2, Ezio is almost the opposite of Altair. Brash, arrogant, getting in street brawls and fleeing over rooftops just for the fun of it. Admittedly, his revenge quest puts a little bit of a dampener on that, and Ezio definitely mellows over time, but you get the sense that he's having fun and prepared to toy with his prey a little more. You don't fist-fight the pope and not end up with some kind of bastard status.

AC3's Connor is a huge nerd who, in fighting for his homeland in a manner similar to Altair, seems to barely crack a smile throughout his entire story. That's in marked opposition to his pirating grandad in the series' fourth instalment; Edward Kenway is a massive bastard, who is doing everything for the money and is barely an assassin for most of Black Flag. He's not interested in the Creed, wishing instead to get rich quick and hopefully have a good time while he's at it.

AC Unity is a personal blind-spot, but I'm reliably informed that Arno is a big ol' simp, who does pretty much everything he does in his game in the uncomfortably chivalric pursuit of a girl. Across the channel, Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Evie and Jacob are a little harder to place in contrast. Evie seems like a nerd, and Jacob is hard to classify as a bastard because he's such a himbo, but his pursuit of vibes-based gang violence and presence as a slightly bigger character than his sister makes Syndicate a bastard game.

From there, it's on to the modern era. Bayek kicks things off by bringing the stoic, desert-dwelling attitude of Altair back to the series in Assassin's Creed Origins. Alexios and Kassandra then immediately reject that vibe in Assassin's Creed Odyssey in favor of fighting and *ahem* sleeping their way across the Mediterranean. Much like fighting the pope, having a signature move based on the movie 300 is definitely a bastard-signifier. The religious Norse underpinnings of AC Valhalla mean that even though Eivor is prepared to have a good time demolishing monasteries, they're too nerdily obsessed with the gods to gain bastard status. But then Basim throws up an issue.

Assassin's Creed Mirage once again features a Creed-steeped desert environment, where Basim is a bit of a nerd as a fledgling Hidden One in ninth-century Baghdad. But overall, the presence of Loki within Basim as established in Valhalla means that he honks bastard status, giving way for Naoe and Yasuke to be big 'ol nerds whose Japanese background all but requires them to be extremely dedicated, serious figures in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Back to Edward for Black Flag Resynced, and the bastard/nerd pattern holds up into 2026.

Yer a Wizard

All that brings us to Hexe, which by every metric I can consider looks like another major win for my pattern. Granted, we don't know much about its narrative, but many signs point to its tone and setting. Eagle-eyed fans pinned the Assassin's Creed Hexe setting to the 17th Century Wurzburg Witch Trials in Germany, and subsequent leaks have made that prediction more likely.

A game with Hexe's witchy theme was always likely to feature some nerdiness. Craft of all kinds, whether or not it was associated with magic or even medicine, requires devotion to learning and precision, which means a driven, academic protagonist seems likely. A community under threat draws comparisons to Connor and Altair, both massive Assassin nerds. And if setting can play a major part, as it did with Bayek, Naoe, and Yasuke, 1600s Germany in the grip of a religious fervor seems likely to prove a setting where the kind of flippancy that makes for a good bastard is not looked upon kindly.

Clearly, there's every chance that Hexe bucks the trend, but it certainly doesn't seem likely to offer up some carefree hero based on everything we've learned about it so far. The only thing that could disrupt my pattern is the rumored remake of an early Assassin's Creed game. If Altair returns just before or just after Hexe, that'll be two nerds in a row. I'll just have to pray for a post-Hexe Ezio remaster to keep my immaculate theory intact.

Explore the best Assassin's Creed games ranked in order of greatness, from the RPG era to spin-offs.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs at Ubisoft are, technically, currently running a community treasure hunt throughout July with three secret pirate troves ready to be torn open. But it's not the challenge Ubisoft anticipated – fans are way too good at playing pirate, having already dug up all the loot in a matter of days.

Ubisoft introduced the community hunt only last week on July 11, writing in a Twitter post, "We've heard word that 3 chests lie hidden across the Caribbean, each containing a unique bounty. We'll drop a new clue every Friday of July! Remember... No pirate sails alone. Work together, crack the clues, and claim the treasure." But there really wasn't any need for patronizing – pirate-tronizing? – advice. Black Flag Resynced players have already dug up all the gold they could. (Spoilers ahead for pirates who want to work out Black Flag's community event on their own! Argh!)

The first buried chest is located at coordinates (421,939), and rewards players with 4,000 Reales – this is the classic treasure hunt reward, a fat mound of money. The second chest located at (501,168) is a little more dramatic: it includes the legendary Uncrowned Prince rapier and legendary Guardian Beast Figurehead. One player on Reddit seems to have discovered it on a lark, writing in a post, "I think I stumbled onto some more items." They did, indeed.

Then, there's the third and final community chest, which contains the biggest prize of all. Found at coordinates (28,293), this bounty includes the legendary Aveline Figurehead and rare Explorer Outfit originally found in the Assassin's Creed Black Flag from 2013. Resynced players initially fretted that the exceedingly rare outfit in red and white – traditional Assassin's Creed colors – hadn't been brought over from the original game. But, as content creator Synth Potato puts it on Twitter, the Reddit user -Holliday was blessed with "genuinely insane luck" and discovered the Explorer Outfit waterlogged at the bottom of the ocean.

"I glanced at my map after taking a naval contract and just how the area looked on the map peaked my interest enough to go check it out," -Holliday explains in a Reddit thread. "Dropped anchor and jumped off, I immediately seen air bubbles and could not believe my eyes once I spotted what was inside. I was honestly briefly shaken with excitement since I knew it was highly sought after and didn't believe anyone had found it yet."

"You just ruined it for Ubisoft," replies another Reddit user. "I love it."

Ubisoft confirms on Twitter that, "We were going to reveal a clue for this community chest on Friday but your treasure hunting skills are too great." That's too bad for Ubisoft, but a pleasant indication that fortune favors the Black Flag fans.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced New Game Plus is coming, director promises: "We're working on that right now."

You've just left the cinema, but The Odyssey still beckons. But what if I told you there were four incredible games you can play to recapture a taste of the adventure? From the most beautiful and best open-world games to RPGs set among the Greek isles, I've picked these games because of how each draws upon different aspects of what makes The Odyssey so thrilling.

There's sword-and-sandals combat action to be found in one, if it's the glory of battle you crave, while others have a tighter focus on the myths and legends that have fueled Homer's classic for thousands of years. There's even a bit of a wildcard entry that might confuse you entirely, since it features neither gods nor Greeks, but I think the common theme of long, laboring journeys more than makes up for it.

If you're in need of a little refresher before you get stuck in here, check out our beginner's guide to The Odyssey to help you pick out your favorite aspects of the film – it will help narrow down your search, trust me. So what are you waiting for? Here are four games to play after experiencing The Odyssey!

The best games to play after watching The Odyssey, starting with...

Hades 2

A no-brainer game to play after watching The Odyssey is "godlike roguelike" Hades 2. The game features Odysseus himself as a Shade (aka a ghost) as well as a host of connected characters. His sea monster nemesis Scylla has been reimagined here as a glam rock siren, guarding the deepest layer of Oceanus with her bandmates Jetty and Roxy. Charybdis the Kraken also shows face, both as a randomized miniboss encounter and as a special guest in Scylla's band.

Melinoë also runs into the goddess Circe on the isle of Aiaia during her Surface runs, and can even engineer a meeting between her and Odysseus so he can make amends for his treatment of her in life. Oh, and the voice of Greek poet Homer narrates Mel's quest throughout! Hades 2 is one of the best roguelikes ever for its expert blending of snappy isometric combat and beautifully scripted storylines, and I can't recommend it highly enough for any fan of The Odyssey's mythical roots.

Mythwrecked: Ambrosia Island

If you want your odyssey to be lighter on the violence yet heavier on the Greek pantheon itself, Mythwrecked is the game you should play after watching Christopher Nolan's latest and greatest. Shipwrecked on an island dotted with amnesic gods, it's your job to help recover their memories and make some powerful new friends on the way.

Mythwrecked is a narrative-heavy experience, drawing on the rich mythology and lore of The Odyssey while giving it a more modern twist. Unfortunately, you cannot romance any of these divine beings (*cough* Hades 2 is where you want to be), but this gorgeous PG-13 indie is the perfect fix for those who'd prefer their next great adventure to be a bit less bloody.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey

The film name's in the game title, after all. Assassin's Creed Odyssey, set among the Greek islands during the Peloponnesian War, places you in the sandals of mercenary twins Kassandra or Alexios of Kefalonia as you unravel a nationwide conspiracy with decidedly Templar links – or as they were known back then, the Order of the Ancients.

Much of the action in this RPG takes place between the warring Athenian and Spartan armies. However, between ganking the Templar Order and lending either army a hand in battle, the thing that really makes AC Odyssey feel like The Odyssey is the amount of Greek mythology you encounter. Expect to go head-to-head with Medusa, the Bull of Minos, and even a cyclops as you uncover the glorious open world, with plenty of naval travel and combat if you're keen to ride the waves between each island. No other game on this list offers a third-person Ancient Greek experience, making it the most thematically and contextually similar to Nolan's new film of the bunch.

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Now this might be a hot take, but Death Stranding 2 actually has a lot more in common with The Odyssey than you might think. At first glance, Sam's journey as a courier in a postapocalyptic Australia sounds about as far from the aftermath of the Trojan War as you can get. But think about it: Death Stranding is a long, arduous journey – an odyssey, you might say, albeit on foot – with plenty of pit stops along the way.

It too features a central protagonist with numerous other faces he encounters on his journey, all the while moving toward a single endpoint that somehow gets only further away the more he moves toward it. It's a grueling feat of a video game that perfectly encapsulates the relentless slog of The Odyssey (check out our Death Stranding 2 review for more), though this time, you'll be fending off BTs instead of sirens.

The Odyssey is out in cinemas now. For more information on Nolan's latest, check out our glowing The Odyssey review.

As Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players beg Edward to put his pipe away, Ubisoft has confirmed it's looking into it.

The remake of the title many people consider the best Assassin's Creed game is unsurprisingly pretty well liked, with it being the fourth-highest-rated game in the series – it even saw the biggest Steam launch in the series' history. But the biggest complaint with the game itself – well, aside from the gross $80 DLC and it being briefly unplayable over the first weekend on PC, but those aren't as funny – has been Edward's pipe.

For whatever reason, the blowpipe weapon in Assassin's Creed Black Flag has been moved for its Resynced return. As far back as months before the game launched, fans picked up on the weird positioning of the weapon, and players have been asking for a toggle to make the blowpipe invisible until you need to use it.

Speaking with YouTuber JorRaptor, Richard Knight – game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced – acknowledges the complaints about the weapon. When JorRaptor mentions that players are looking for a way to hide it, Knight explains, "I'm not sure this is official yet," but "one of our most senior programmers is working on it right now." He adds, "The feeling is mutual. I have a feeling it's coming soon."

As for why it wasn't there from the get go, Knight says: "I wish it was just a magical feature that just was there the moment it started, but it's just because of the way characters are set up." He explains, "Somebody has to do setup to make this specific part of the character just disappear only when this specific setting is enabled, which you know we need to do."

So while nothing is "official" yet, you can rest easy knowing you'll be able to have Edward sans blowpipe soon.

If you're yet to set sail in Ubisoft's new remake, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review.

Players have had just seven days to enjoy Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and talk of DLC is already starting. The devs have notions about how they'd like to carry on Edward's story and the world of the Caribbean, but don't expect to see a redux of the Freedom Cry expansion just yet.

"I know some folks on the team have DLC ideas," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "We need to balance those out with our future, and then updating the core game."

Knight calls Edward "our focus" and the "heart and soul of the original game," and Ubisoft is keeping that aspect at the forefront. "Maybe there could be more to tell there too," he comments.

You'd think Freedom Cry, the spin-off DLC from Black Flag, would be a natural evolution for Resynced. But since the protagonist and setting differ, focusing on Adéwalé in Saint-Domingue marks a departure from Edward.

"I can't really say anything as to a Freedom Cry," he adds. "We've got our hands full with this game right now. Freedom Cry, it's not a small thing either."

He mentions the devs are "still figuring out" what to prioritize at the minute, since there are all the post-launch fires to put out, and whatever additional plans are already in place for the coming months.

Assassin's Creed games are always among the bigger releases in any given year, and Black Flag Resynced is one of the more hyped in recent memory. The original's a fan-favorite that still holds up, and getting to hop back out on the seven seas is something plenty of us are jumping at. Freedom Cry would be an added bonus, and Knight understands the yearning for it.

"It's a game we remember," he says. "It needs some modernization work. These are just things we consider; I really don't know the future beyond supporting Black Flag Resynced."

The terrible weather in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is fixed in a new patch that also adds hints for a notorious boss fight

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced made some notable changes to the original game's weather system to make storms more dynamic and realistic – but they've also gotten annoyingly frequent. Thankfully, that's one of the key changes in title update 1.0.4, which also includes a wide array of bug fixes and quality of life improvements.

Title update 1.0.4 will go live at 7am PT/10am ET/3pm BST on July 16. The update is 2.44 GB on PS5, 2.7 GB on Steam, 3.71 GB on Ubisoft's PC launcher, and a whopping 15.35 GB on Xbox Series X and S. You can check out the full patch notes on Reddit, but there's no doubt the big highlight is the weather.

Ubisoft has "fixed the issue where the weather never becomes foggy" and "tweaked weather system balancing to increase the proportion of sun and clear skies." That'll come as a great relief to the players who've been complaining about the weather from the start, since the storms have been rolling in with alarming frequency, cutting short shanties and preventing you from using your fastest sails.

But there's one other tweak that catches my eye: "During the battle with El Tiburon, it might be unclear for some players on how to break his defense," Ubisoft admits. "We have added hints for players on how to break it." That is a highly specific issue that you'd hope would've been addressed through pre-release testing, but hey, this is why it usually pays to wait for a few patches.

There are other, more substantial content updates on the way a little further down the line, including a New Game Plus mode. The devs are also taking a look at potentially restoring some of the combat options that were cut for Resynced, though it's not yet certain when or if that's actually going to happen.

If you're wondering how much you've got left to play of Resynced, check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag mission list.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players quickly noticed that our old pal Edward feels noticeably better to play in many ways but has also forgotten some of the techniques he had several years ago. Game director Richard Knight says some elements of the original game's combat system were left out in the remake because they were of lower priority compared to finalizing the core action, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're gone for good.

Speaking with YouTuber JorRaptor (thanks, PC Gamer), Knight explains some of the triage involved in much of game development. "During development, if you looked at Edward, he's so powerful right now, he's got so many tools," he recalls. "So we prioritized core combat because we needed to nail that."

Edward's ability to source throwing weapons has been heavily discussed. Knight touches on this as an example of a non-essential mechanic for the remake. (There was also quite a bit of chatter around the removal of hidden blade combat in favor of Edward's dual swords.)

"Something like the throwing weapons, while it's cool, it's just like, he already has 10 ways to kill somebody," he reasons. "Given the cost to reinvent the feature and rebuild it from the ground up with today's characters and rigs and animation and all this, there's just a lot more that goes into it.

"So it was just lower priority for us. I don't have anything to share on this one yet, but we're definitely listening. I read all the good and the bad feedback."

Knight stresses that he "can't make any promises" regarding combat updates or reinstated features, but does say, "We're listening to the community. We're interested in what people want the most." Throwing weapons seem to be near the top of the list, but as Knight says, would likely require quite a lot of work to add in. Of course, that probably won't stop modders from bashing a version of this together themselves.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced New Game Plus is coming, director promises: "We're working on that right now."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is getting New Game Plus, and while Ubisoft isn't ready to say exactly when it's launching, this feature is a high priority for future updates.

YouTuber JorRaptor asked about New Game Plus in an interview with game director Richard Knight, and while the dev couldn't say much about the option, he repeatedly emphasized that it's currently in production.

"Well, this is the one thing I can say: Yes, we're working on that right now," Knight says in the interview. "For sure. It's one of the first things. Partly because Shadows has already built their version, so it's considered a low-risk feature for us. We're still doing the work, so I can't promise exactly a day or anything, but we're definitely working on this one. It's just such a natural thing."

Simon Lemay-Comtois, associate game director of Shadows, "did the hard work" of introducing New Game Plus, Knight jokes, which does give the Black Flag Resynced team "something to look at" when implementing it. But "our games are not exactly the same," Knight explains. "We have different challenges in terms of how that works. We can't skip to the hideout, necessarily. But we're looking into it."

Asked if Black Flag Resynced will have additional rewards for New Game Plus similar to Shadows, Knight says: "If it's up to me, yes. There's still production discussions about what we can do and how much time it takes. Every item we make needs a model. Sometimes it needs cloth sim. All sorts of things."

In other words, it sounds like this iteration of New Game Plus is still pretty early in the design phase. Knight adds that, in his opinion, the "more exciting" part of New Game Plus is simply stomping early-game foes with late-game power, but it sounds like those sorts of details are still being ironed out.

And, again, that also goes for the release date. "I really can't promise anything – just to say it's at the top of the list of things," Knight emphasizes. "There's a lot of things. Some are harder than others, but it's something we definitely want to get done."

As Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced's underwater levels draw praise, dev says those responsible are "being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve."

Sometimes, gaming remakes can be used to gauge interest in returning to an older series. While that's not quite the case with Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced – we know Assassin's Creed Hexe is on the way – I think its reception could be a useful barometer for such a long-running franchise in seeing if there's appetite for more of the same. Namely, a classic-feeling Assassin's Creed that centers on smaller, denser maps rather than Assassin's Creed Shadows-style open-world RPG adventures. Going further, I'd love the remake to directly lead to a legacy sequel continuing Edward Kenway's saga. If that's the case, consider my appetite ravenous.

In my own Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review, I bemoaned the awkward approach to how remaining faithful to the 2013 original hampered introducing changes. A legacy sequel, acting as an immediate follow-up to the 13 year-old entry, would be able to shed one-to-one comparisons while providing room to iterate on classic AC's stealth loop. With plenty of information out there about what the pirate-turned-Master Assassin was up to between Black Flag and the American-set Assassin's Creed 3 and London-set Assassin's Creed Syndicate, I'd love to see his journey for myself. It has too many tantalizing beats not to salivate over it.

London bound

After all, during Black Flag, Edward spends most of his time turning his nose up at the Assassins. His self-centered quest for booty blinds him to the righteousness of extending his belief in liberty to the people en masse rather than just himself. It's not until the game's final arc that he seeks to make amends for his errors – not truly embracing the path of the Assassin until literally the final cutscene of the game where he finally sails home to Britain after many years building his pirate empire in the Caribbean. Black Flag ends with Edward setting out on a new beginning. Satisfying in its own way, but it feels like the door is open for expansion.

While a legacy sequel doesn't have to be completely beholden to existing Assassin's Creed lore, there's plenty Black Flag 2 could riff on if it doesn't want to completely diverge. After settling in London, Edward became pals with the Assassin Miko, joining the local Brotherhood and rising up the ranks until they both became co-Mentor figures. Miko, by the by, is the poor fellow you kill at the opera as Haytham Kenway in the opening of Assassin's Creed 3 – Haytham having been indoctrinated into the Templars after his father's murder.

While Miko handled the day-to-day running of the Brotherhood, Edward forged alliances at home and abroad – able to merge his piracy experience with a strategic mind to sail the world in search of more First Civilization artefacts and Isu Temples, leveraging some of the information obtained from the Templars in Black Flag to do so. Recent webtoon Assassin's Creed: The Forgotten Temple has expanded on this by focusing on a series of adventures he has across southeast Asia – an exciting jumping off point (which Ubisoft considers a Black Flag sequel in and of itself), but not the only path a sequel game would have to take.

Edward's journeys could take him to almost any location frequented by ships of the era, with codex entries in both Assassin's Creed Rogue and Syndicate putting him back at the very first game's Alamut, as well as the Ezio Trilogy's Italy, where he is confirmed to have found remnants of Isu civilization. His continued search for the Grand Temple (around which most of Assassin's Creed 3 revolves, but also the America sidequest chain in Assassin's Creed Valhalla), give him plenty of excuse to set sail to the Americas as well.

Eventually tragically killed in his own home, and never able to succeed in actually finishing off Templar Woodes Rogers (who somehow survives a decadent stabbing at a party courtesy of Edward in Black Flag – one of many things I wish Resynced had given us more elaboration on), there's still plenty Edward manages to accomplish over this period of time. As well as simply finding Isu Temples, he secures Pieces of Eden – detailing it all in his encoded journal that would eventually lead Evie Frye to the Shroud of Eden in Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

The Shroud of Eden a high-tech device so powerful that Edward kept it secret, even to the London Assassins, which shows he had an interesting independent streak even after joining the wider cause. And, though the deaths of Edward and then Miko would lead London to fall to the Templar rule that Syndicate would find it in, building up London into a kind of Assassin Golden Age has an appeal. Maybe even more so with the dramatic irony that would entail for series fans.

Importantly, a lot of these locations have already been present in the series so far. Rather than making that a hindrance, I say celebrate it. Only the perennially overlooked Assassin's Creed Rogue (and very briefly Assassin's Creed Revelations) has dabbled in revisiting past maps subtly altered to place them in a different time period. In fact, that could make a Black Flag 2 feel like a true Legacy Sequel, reimaging maps from past Assassin's Creed games.

Why waste the bones built for Syndicate when its London was so big and dense? Re-engineer it into a new era for Edward Kenway to run around his home between boat jaunts, please. Asset re-use, smartly used, can provide a sense of place like little else – just look at the Yakuza series and how special Kamurocho has become to its dedicated fans like myself.

Mixing together reimagined takes on previous entries with some new ports could provide a neat blend of old and new as Edward takes his ship and crew across far-flung coastlines. As well as Alamut, and, say, Rome or Boston, Edward could indeed touch base in some southeast Asia territories like Macau; where does Shao Jun's Chinese Assassin Brotherhood find itself a couple hundred years after Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China? Or, why not set course back to his hometown of Swansea for some Welsh adventuring – which was forbidden in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. On the Edward Kenway celebration tour, nothing is off limits.

Am I seriously expecting Assassin's Creed Black Flag 2 to exist? Honestly, I'm on the fence – though, Ubisoft, feel free to call it Assassin's Creed: Fall of London, Assassin's Creed: Boys on Tour, or Assassin's Creed: Sail Mary for free. A lot of work has clearly gone into getting Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced off the ground, and in a time where soaring game development budgets seem untenable, I'd love to see more bang for each buck spent on the tech made specifically for the remake. I love sequels that feel like deeper iterations on strong foundations rather than ground-up evolutions – I think it can create an atmosphere in which developers can do some of their best work (and may be one reason I love God of War Ragnarok so much). But, maybe I just grew up playing too many level packs like Rayman Designer and Tomb Raider.

Beyond that, it's clear that Assassin's Creed is reaching a point where it could use a bit of reinvention. Assassin's Creed Shadows being a huge open-world RPG works well enough on its own, but for all its unique mechanics, it can feel too similar to the three huge open-world adventures that came before it. Assassin's Creed Hexe looks to be mixing things up. But, until then, perhaps Edward Kenway can step in. After all, he helped steer the course after Assassin's Creed 3 proved so divisive. Perhaps he can do it again.

Edward Kenway is great, but which adventure is king? Check out our best Assassin's Creed games ranking to see our favorites.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is here, and despite releasing to "Mixed" reviews on Steam, it's doing – and selling – pretty dang well.

Standing as the first Assassin's Creed game to hit over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, the Black Flag remake is performing quite nicely on PC – and beyond, for that matter.

Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, explores some of the numbers Resynced has already managed to pull off, under a week after its launch, in a new post on his Substack. He first dubs the game a "much-needed win for Ubisoft.

This aligns quite well with what the analyst previously said: that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced "is on track to be a much-needed hit for Ubisoft" – which he evidently was right to say.

"Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a much-needed win for Ubisoft on Steam," as Elliott writes, "selling 701,000 copies for $35 million in gross revenue, plus almost $1 million more from day-one DLC."

Now, that's a lot of money – especially when you consider all the controversy the DLC has stirred up with fans.

Heck, many of the negative reviews over on Steam have to do with these "optional" purchases and microtransactions, which add up to over $80 in total. It appears that hasn't stopped folks from buying the DLC, though. A million or so bucks is, well, pretty significant, all things considered.

That's not all, however. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is outperforming predecessor, Assassin's Creed Shadows, on Valve's platform, too.

"Shadows was the first Assassin's Creed to go day-and-date on Steam, and it set the revenue bar early last year," as Elliott notes. "Resynced cleared it comfortably, and did so while selling for less ($59.99 versus Shadows’ full-RPG price)." For reference, Shadows is usually (off-sale) $69.99.

"On day one alone, Resynced pulled in $22.4 million on Steam, 2.35x what Shadows managed on its own launch day ($9.5 million)," the analyst continues. "Four days in, Resynced's revenues via unit sales sat at $35.1 million cumulative versus Shadows' $22.2 million, roughly 1.58x ahead and pulling away."

Wild figures, eh? Ubisoft is finally settling nicely into the PC market, it seems.

"Against the pre-day-and-date era, it's no contest: Resynced has out-earned Valhalla by 9x and Mirage by nearly 19x at the same point, a reminder of how much Steam has grown as a launch platform for Ubisoft in just a few years," as Elliott concludes.

"It's proof that day-and-date Steam releases are now doing serious money for a publisher that spent years treating PC as an afterthought (outside of an ill-fated launcher)."

He does clarify that Resynced is still facing criticism for its DLC – but as I said earlier, that doesn't seem to be slowing down the game's (or the optional purchases') traction.

Interested in one of the biggest new games of 2026 yourself? Read through our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to learn what we think of it.

There's too much carnage to keep up with – Xbox is in the middle of chopping up 3,200 jobs, Ubisoft's on track to have made a total of 4,000 layoffs since 2022, and Embracer is now indistinguishable from a natural disaster, having laid waste to $2 billion-worth of acquisitions by closing, canceling, and setting fire to everything unlucky enough to be in its path. Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead QA manager Dave Gallacher has seen it all, and he despises it.

"Each structural point of our industry is controlled by money and those with it have been greedy morons for the past 10+ years," Gallacher, who spent 10 years at DICE before joining Arrowhead this summer, says in a LinkedIn thread discussing worker-owned studios as the possible answer to mass layoffs. "How Ubisoft and Embracer leadership aren't in prison absolutely eludes me for their shady tactics, and the victims are very much these thousands of talented developers we're hoping can summon money out of the ether to start studios."

That's a painful analysis, but Gallacher has clearly been working with it for a while. Last week, as Xbox began culling thousands of positions and leaving studios bleeding out the neck, Gallacher said in another LinkedIn post, "For the past 3 years, I've used the phrase 'this year is going to be a bloodbath,' relating to the games industry. And somehow it gets worse each year."

"Where is that money going?" he continues. "A deluded CEO speaking of reaching 'billions of players' whilst pouring the newly pilfered wages of talented Devs into the plagiarism machine (AI). Absolute darkest timeline shit."

Microsoft. Ubisoft. Embracer. EA, Gallacher's former employer, which reportedly laid off Battlefield 6 devs after they helped make a game that sold 20 million copies. Epic Games, which exterminated more than 1,000 jobs in March after being disappointed its $26 billion game Fortnite is waning in popularity. There's not a single angel among these video game industry behemoths, only vultures.

Since I read and write about layoffs and game cancellations nearly every day, recently, I find it difficult to feel anything toward it that resembles optimism. I also play video games for fun every day, and my own headlines about money and lost jobs knock around the back of my head while I grapple with the fact that, despite everything, I still love playing video games.

"Some parts continue to drive obsessive behaviour, some parts make you want to go play in traffic," Gallacher said earlier this week in another post about the video game industry. "It's complicated." There's not much else to say – just, if Ubisoft and Embracer leadership ever do go to prison like Gallacher fantasizes, I think it should be the one from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Sony's attack on physical goods spreads to Crunchyroll as it adds a $14 subscription requirement just to access its store.

An Ubisoft Barcelona developer who worked on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has responded to praise for their team's work as Ubisoft looks to lay off 51 developers from the studio.

Ahead of the remake's launch earlier this month, news broke that Ubisoft Barcelona developers are going on strike after Vantage Studios – the Ubisoft-Tencent conglomerate established last year – informed the studio that the Assassin's Creed team at Ubisoft Barcelona will be let go at the end of July, according to a former developer. Resynced is the fourth-highest-rated game in the series, has seen the biggest Steam launch in the series' history, and is receiving praise from fans of the series.

Over on Twitter, Assassin's Creed fan account TheRealZephryss made a post praising the game's underwater tech and exploration segments, which was reposted by Manel Cota, tech and gameplay animator at Ubisoft Barcelona, as part of Black Flag Resynced's development. Cota responded to the praise, saying, "Thanks! Ubisoft Barcelona did all the underwater levels. And that same team is being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve."

Ubisoft Barcelona are striking today, tomorrow and Thursday in response to Ubisoft's planned layoffs, with Spanish union La Confederación General del Trabajo's bulletin confirming the strike aims are to ensure that the 51 staff who are set to be laid off are retained, to prevent more mass layoffs for "a minimum of five years" by requesting job protections, offering staff the option to work from home, a demand that already-agreed promotions be given.

Ubisoft says it's going a little quiet after Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced ahead of "significantly bigger" years with more games.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, the long-awaited remake of Ubisoft's open-world pirate game, is finally here, and with a slew of positive reviews and guides on ship upgrades and loot chests making the rounds, it's easy to forget there isn't a whole lot on the company's release slate in the immediate future. We've got Rayman Legends Retold coming in October, and there's a bunch of upcoming Ubisoft games without firm release dates, but Ubisoft diehards looking for their next fix might want to drop anchor and soak in the vibes for a while.

In Ubisoft's latest financial report, the company itself admits it's going into a relative period of quiet after Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, saying a "lighter new release slate" will be followed by "stronger releases in fiscal year 2027-2028," which runs April 1, 2027 to March 31, 2028.

"Beyond fiscal year 2026-27 the Group expects a significantly bigger content pipeline over fiscal year 2027-28 and fiscal year 2028-29 across its major brands including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Ghost Recon," reads Ubisoft's report.

Ubisoft also says its live service operations will see an "acceleration" which, combined with "this stronger release schedule," a "refocused portfolio" and "continued reduction of its fixed cost base," there will be "an important rebound with a return to positive free cash flow."

While Ubisoft clarifies that it has "premium games based on established Ubisoft brands that will be announced at a later date," we're not entirely going off guess work here. We know the next mainline game in the Assassin's Creed series is codenamed Hexe, and it's a "darker," witchy adventure set "during a pivotal moment in history." We also know about the mobile-exclusive Assassin's Creed Jade, and then of course there's Beyond Good and Evil 2 and, presumably, Far Cry 7 at some point... hopefully.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was briefly unplayable over the weekend on PC despite being a single-player "offline" game

Ubisoft has disclosed a valuable trade secret in its latest annual financial report. It appears that, if a developer takes a really long time to make a video game that isn't as bulletproof as GTA 6, fans might stop caring.

The Far Cry creator identifies in its report, spotted by Game File, that "an inappropriate release schedule" can be grave for a video game business. Releasing slipshod games too early will never work, but "conversely, releasing a game too late – when market anticipation has waned and it no longer meets market standards in a highly competitive environment – can also hinder its success."

Ubisoft addresses the issue in only vague terms, but it still sounds like the company is making a quiet self-admonishment here. Ubisoft, which has disposed of over 2,000 workers in the past two years alongside a few passionate swears of loyalty to generative AI, is working with a clogged tank.

Fans of Ubisoft's big FPS series have been waiting on Far Cry 7 since 2021. We can apparently expect to get more Ghost Recon at some point in the next three years, though it's been seven years since Breakpoint, and Ubisoft recently killed its developer Red Storm, laying off 105. Beyond Good and Evil 2 is now a legal adult – the sequel was first announced in 2008.

To that last point, Beyond Good and Evil 2 creative director Fawzi Mesmar said earlier this year that the action-adventure game's team is still committed to "delivering a remarkable game for our players to enjoy." When? That's classified.

Though, Ubisoft provides a sort of answer in its annual report, admitting that issues like an overly long release cycle can cause "damage to the game's reputation and brand image, loss of players (disappointment of players who would turn to the competition)." So the real reply to "When?" is actually, "It doesn't matter anymore."

After laying off thousands, Ubisoft says losing "key talents and skills" is a big danger for the company.

Years into a restructuring that's seen it shed thousands of jobs and multiple high-profile creative veterans, Ubisoft leadership considers losing key staff and failing to attract new talent to be significant risks for the company.

Ubisoft's latest annual report contains an updated assessment of "risk factors that could affect its performance, its reputation, the achievement of its strategic and financial goals, and its share price."

One subsection singles out "risks related to talent," with "loss of key talent and skills" listed as high risk and "lack of attractiveness to key talent" as moderate risk.

These points are explored in more depth later in the report, and the verbiage is fascinating not just in the context of Ubisoft's own overhaul, but amid the broader brain drain afflicting the games industry after devastating layoffs and studio closures which have forced many people out of games altogether, temporarily or permanently.

Xbox just added 1,600 people – soon to be 3,200 – to the growing list of games layoffs. Ubisoft itself is down to a much leaner 16,590 staff according to the report – a dramatic cut from 18,666 in late 2024, and that was after more than 2,000 layoffs already. Ubisoft's pace has averaged roughly 1,000 people cut per year over the past four years. Even as it makes these cuts, Ubisoft says it has to be careful about staff retention.

"The sudden departure of members of the games core teams could be damaging to the Group's development and could have a significant impact on its editorial policy," Ubisoft observes.

"The Group's success also depends on its teams' know-how and skills in a highly competitive international market. Indeed, the video game industry requires a certain number of innovative skills at the cutting edge of their respective fields. The Group is therefore exposed to a situation of dependence on certain key talents whose creativity or technical expertise is rare and highly valued in the market (artificial intelligence, cloud gaming, data, etc)."

To help mitigate these risks, Ubisoft says it's established a succession plan for executive officers and is working toward "the gradual implementation" of a similar plan for key roles like creative director, producer, and studio general manager. Various corporate muscles have also been flexed – including "the monitoring of commitment levels" and "the development of a differentiated compensation policy" – to help promote leadership skills, knowledge sharing, and training.

Ubisoft's report notes high turnover, "particularly for senior talented individuals in key roles," as a relevant factor here, alongside inadequate training, the need for new skills, and a working environment that "does not meet the aspirations of talented individuals."

This connects nicely to the report's discussion of bringing in new talent. "Ubisoft faces increasing pressure from not only its direct competitors in the video game sector, but also from competitors in other sectors/industries in search of the same talents (engineers, etc.)," the report continues.

In this space, Ubisoft targets an evolved and "selective recruitment, development and retention policy" as a way to bring in and hold onto people, promote career advancement, build a "welcoming and inclusive" workplace, and engender "continuous learning."

In one of the most interesting lines in the whole 356-page report, Ubisoft directly acknowledges the conflict between its actions (laying people off) and these aspirations (finding and keeping people), describing the "development of a deep-rooted corporate culture, promoting well-being at work, allowing talented team members to reach their full potential, despite a transformation plan that is necessary to return to the expected level of performance."

The company's report underscores a growing problem in the industry: great games cannot just be made by anyone, and, in this consolidation-heavy time, that may mean that a company gaining an IP but losing the people who defined it doesn't really get it much in the end. In fact, everyone loses out.

I'm reminded of a quote from New Blood head Dave Oshry, who I spoke to as part of a larger 2025 report about what people get wrong about game development.

"With the exception of solo devs, games are an artistic endeavor that require the cooperation of handfuls, dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people at once working together to create interactive art," Oshry said. "You can put all the great programmers, artists, animators and sound designers you want in the same building but that doesn't mean they can make a great game. Great games are made by great teams that work great together. It helps when they're all friends, too."

"This is not how I imagined it would end": Ubisoft to lay off Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs at its Barcelona studio, with one calling the remake's release "bittersweet."

Calmness washes over me as I place a brig on the shelf, nestled lovingly between a schooner and a fishing boat. There's something deeply satisfying about building out my collection of ship models in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, each awarded to me after defeating a vessel of its likeness in the clear blue oceans connecting the West Indies, and it keeps me coming back to Great Inagua for more.

The magpie-like thrill doesn't stop there. In fact, one of my favorite things about the Black Flag remake is its curated approach to base building. I love wafting about my splendid mansion between missions, admiring all my trinkets like a wistful, somewhat inebriated old widow looking back on her life with pride. What good is all that pirate booty if Edward can't put it somewhere special?

Warning: spoilers for major character deaths ahead!

Home and hearth

I didn't expect the mansion on Great Inagua to become such a warm, inviting space when I liberated it from a Templar in the game's early hours. Yet here I am, rushing back to the island hideaway with a backpack full of paintings, vases, and even an intricately-designed wardrobe to adorn its halls with.

What started out as a lengthy side quest – restoring the late lady-of-the-house's art collection by request of her devoted butler, whom I seem to have inherited along with the mansion itself – has become a pronounced obsession. It's a different approach to the base building elements seen in some of the best Assassin's Creed games of late. With its grid placement system and massive library of structures, landscaping, and design tools at the ready, Assassin's Creed Shadows leaned heavier on the sandbox elements of life sim games like The Sims. It made sense for Shadows as a dense open world RPG, fleshing out the system as seen in Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Ravensthorpe base camp.

But Black Flag Resynced's mansion of trinkets sits a little closer to the likes of Assassin's Creed Syndicate's procedurally-decorated steam train hideout, which sees new items and mementos unlocked after completing mission sequences.

There's no grid system in Edward’s mansion, but individual gaps in its art collection. Tasteful portraits have their own ascribed wall hanging spots and cannot be displayed elsewhere, as do furniture items, while tabletop decorations and miscellaneous paintings can go on any suitable surface. There also seems to be a finite number of artworks, art pieces, and furniture items to collect, which does make narrative sense. Edward is supposed to be restoring a curated suite of items that have been doled out to various Templars across the West Indies, each with their own pride of place in the mansion – not redecorating the house as he pleases.

That in itself adds a rich bit of texture to Black Flag's overall world building. Edward might be the current occupier of the mansion, but he is not its owner. He did not purchase it; much like the Templar Du Casse before him, Edward had to kill to take what wasn't his. I've mentioned before that I think he's a huge bastard, and, well.. Put like that, can you really disagree with me?

Know your place's place

To my utter surprise, though, Edward does not meet the butler's request for him to restore the art collection with a sneer. Nor does he threaten to sell the items off for profit, as would befit a pirate.

Edward agrees to this strangely sentimental side project, setting out in earnest to get the mansion back to the state it was in before its rightful owner died. He accepts that this house is not truly his, and that there's no point trying to wrest it from the long-dead Lady's hands when her butler is still here laying claim to it in her stead. Edward shows the butler deference instead of derision, and after all his mouthy blustering, I love seeing him humbled.

There are still inflections of Edward's own personality shining through as he restores the place. He starts collecting ship models, for a start, displaying them in his large office space, and can display his armor and weaponry in one of the parlors. There’s even a basement passage leading out into Great Inagua’s village center with extra painting spaces, each waiting to commemorate one of Edward’s lost comrades. They become little vigils once a portrait is placed, creating a space where Edward can stop and take a moment to remember friends and adventures past.

It's become one of my little rituals. I always make time to stop by the house to reflect on Edward's journey so far after a particularly grueling main mission, having a little cuddle with pet monkey Albert on the way to Blackbeard's portrait, perhaps sneering "prick" at the likeness of a slain Templar and plantation owner en route to his miniature collection.

All it takes is a mild word from the butler ("there's still more art to be found, Mr. Kenway") I'm off again, hunting down my next mission marker in hopes of securing another fine painting. But first, I collect my protection money. He might have a disarming respect for culture and art, but Edward Kenway is still a pirate after all.

Check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review for our Games Editor's thoughts on Ubisoft's latest.