Assassin’s Creed Mirage In-Game Pop-Up Ad a ‘Technical Error,’ Ubisoft Says

Some Assassin’s Creed Odyssey console gamers encountered in-game pop-up adverts for Ubisoft’s Black Friday Sale whereas taking part in the sport. As per a Reddit video posted by u/triddell24, they stumbled upon an commercial when toggling open the world map, filling the display screen with a dismissible banner for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, at the moment out there at a 20 % low cost. Clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button would presumably redirect to the shop web page for Mirage. Players on-line have comprehensible expressed their disappointment over the in-game commercial that interferes with gameplay. Publisher Ubisoft has since apologised for the pop-up, along with stating it was a ‘technical error.’

“We have been made aware that some players encountered a pop-up message in-game while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday. This was the result of a technical error that has now been fixed,” Ubisoft addressed in a tweet. The firm has denied claims that it was an intentional means to promote extra Assassin’s Creed copies, including that it was presupposed to be displayed on in-game menus throughout the franchise. However, the error prompted the promotion to indicate up in-game and disrupt the circulation, inflicting many to match it to cell recreation adverts that consistently urge gamers to interact with microtransactions. That mentioned, a Community Note hooked up on the backside of the tweet exhibits a comparable occasion from 4 years in the past the place an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey participant was hit with a pop-in advert when making an attempt to open the map. In-game commercials are met with the identical, if not worse, outrage as microtransactions, which solely exist as a approach to extract extra money from clients.

Both online game publishers and film manufacturing firms have experimented with methods to incorporate pop-up adverts over time, regardless of inventing methods to eat ad-free content material. Netflix has been dabbling with cheaper ad-supported alternate options within the US, which could possibly be one thing reside service video games implement into their core mannequin — it would not really feel far-fetched contemplating the second you open a menu on one thing like Overwatch 2, you are urged to work together with battle passes and buy new cosmetics. Even Microsoft has began incorporating fullscreen pop–up adverts for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 upon booting up the Xbox console, no matter whether or not somebody already owned the sport. There are artful methods for a developer to advertise its personal video games — Remedy Entertainment being a nice instance, the place it might embrace posters and screenshots for its different titles by way of in-world banners, posters, and laptop screens.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft confirmed that it was engaged on two new modes for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, out there as a free replace in December. While not explicitly talked about, the New Game+ mode ought to permit gamers to plunge again into ninth-century Baghdad in an overpowered state, carrying over any talent upgrades and weapon unlocks. I discussed in my assessment how each improve in Mirage made an already simple recreation simpler, and to that impact, Ubisoft is including a permadeath mode, accessible throughout all problem ranges. The recreation is a throwback to the old-school Assassin’s Creed video games centered on a contained story and stealthy killings earlier than the collection took a detour into the open-world RPG format with AC Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.

Both Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Odyssey can be found on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.