Assassin’s Creed Mirage Was Originally Meant to be a Valhalla Expansion, Developer Confirms

Assassin’s Creed Mirage was officially unveiled recently, but the game has, of course, been prominently featured in leaks since the early months of this year. Many details on the stealth title were already known before being officially confirmed by Ubisoft, with one particular tidbit mentioned by multiple leaks being that the game initially started life as another expansion for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, before being morphed into its own standalone project.

That has now been officially confirmed as well. Speaking in an interview with Game Rant, Assassin’s Creed Mirage creative director Stephane Boudon confirmed that the initial plan was indeed to develop Mirage as another DLC for Valhalla. That said, the game apparently transformed into a very different project once it was decided that it would be a standalone title- with Basim also being brought in as the protagonist. As per Boudon, that switch happened “quite early” in the game’s development.

“Yes, we started Mirage, in its first idea, as a Valhalla DLC, and it was quite different at the time,” Boudon said. “That idea only lived for a few weeks and only on paper, in fact. Quite early, we decided to become a standalone with a full new character because we saw all the potential of such a return to the roots. And it was all pretty quick.”

Mirage is, of course, being developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux, the studio that also developed the Wrath of the Druids DLC for Valhalla. The upcoming stealth-focused action-adventure title promises to be a back-to-the-basics experience that’ll be inspired by the series’ older entries, offering a runtime of about 15-20 hours.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is due out sometime in 2023 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC.