Ubisoft CEO dodges Assassin's Creed Rift rumors but promises a multi-year roadmap for the franchise

Assassin's Creed Valhalla
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The Assassin's Creed Rift rumors got a little stronger today after Ubisoft's CEO gave them a brief mention in a business call.

During the Q&A session of Ubisoft's latest financial results call, one analyst asked about the reports of a smaller Assassin's Creed game being next up for the franchise. While the analyst didn't mention "Rift" by its codename, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot did in his response to the question.

"As to your question related to Rift, I think what we can say here is that we won't comment further on the rumor. What we can say is, back to our comment in October, we have a very strong roadmap on the AC franchise for years to come, with very meaningful content coming every year. We reaffirmed our focus on delivering high-quality narrative, and today as we mentioned we are happy to celebrate the stellar performance from Valhalla so far."

Guillemot added that Ubisoft is "very focused on delivering the second great year of strong content" for Valhalla, led by the upcoming Dawn of Ragnarok expansion. According to the rumors, the project codenamed Assassin's Creed Rift was originally planned to be Valhalla DLC as well, but is now planned for a standalone release. It will apparently star master assassin Basim and may take place in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, likely sometime before the events of Valhalla.

Ubisoft's further plans for the future of Assassin's Creed also include Assassin's Creed Infinity, which won't be free to play despite having live-service elements.

In the same call, Guillemot noted that Ubisoft "can remain independent" but would consider acquisition offers.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

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