Assassin's Creed Mirage Leak Shows Return of Controversial…

Summary

Assassin's Creed Mirage will have microtransactions according to a leak, going against fans' hopes for a full return to the series' roots.
Ubisoft's decision to embrace games as a service in recent years has been successful in increasing revenue.
The leaked equipment pack suggests that Mirage may adopt a premium in-game currency model similar to Assassin's Creed Valhalla.

Assassin's Creed Mirage will feature microtransactions, as suggested by one newly emerged leak that revealed one such piece of paid content from the upcoming game. While Ubisoft's titles have long featured microtransactions, the company's repeated claims that Assassin's Creed Mirage will return to the series roots made some fans hopeful that the game will be free of additional monetization attempts.

Ubisoft's decision to embrace the games as a service business model continues to polarize the company's fandom to this date. However, the gaming giant managed to add nearly $1 billion to its annual revenue since starting its aggressive push circa 2017. Many fans have been clamoring for another classic Assassin's Creed game that's not 100 hours long in the years that followed, with Mirage finally being announced in September 2022 as a direct response to those pleas.

Even though Mirage is largely intended as a tribute to the original Assassin's Creed, it will apparently still incorporate equipment microtransactions that were prominently featured throughout the recent games in the franchise. That's according to established Ubisoft dataminer j0nathan, who recently took to Twitter to share an image of one such piece of paid content. According to their leak, Assassin's Creed Mirage will offer a Fire Demon Pack that includes a full set of armor for Basim, chamfron mask for his mounts, and a flaming sword.

While the pricing of the newly leaked equipment pack remains unclear, its very existence suggests that Assassin's Creed Mirage might take a cue from the last mainline installment in the series by adopting a premium in-game currency model. Some of the most memorable armor sets in Assassin's Creed Valhalla—such as Black Raven, Einherjar, and Draugr—were locked behind paywalls, priced at up to 800 Helix Credits. The smallest Valhalla currency bundle containing 2,300 credits regularly retails at $19.99, though it's also frequently treated to deep discounts.

In a July 2023 Reddit AMA, Creative Director Stephane Boudon said that Ubisoft isn't planning to offer extensive post-launch support or DLC for Assassin's Creed Mirage. The company has so far confirmed that the upcoming game will include an exclusive Forty Thieves quest as a pre-order bonus, as well as some Prince of Persia-inspired content bundled with its Deluxe and Collector's Case editions.

The part of the series fandom that dislikes microtransactions can take some solace in the fact that Assassin's Creed games have historically avoided aggressive monetization practices, at least relative to many other Ubisoft games. Paid content in Valhalla and previous installments in the franchise has hence been limited to DLC story missions and equipment that's not necessarily better than what the fans were able to unlock through regular play. All recent Assassin's Creed games also offered opportunities to earn limited quantities of Helix Credits for free.