Though Ubisoft have now officially unveiled Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the series’ next instalment has been leaked relentlessly over the last year. Before that happened though, what kicked everything off was when what was presumed to be an easter egg for the next Assassin’s Creed game was spotted in The Division 2 in the form of poster that sported Nordic imagery and the word “Valhalla” plastered on it.
That opened the floodgate for leak after leak, but according to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt – who served in the same capacity on Origins and Revelations – that was actually complete coincidence. Speaking to Stevivor, McDevitt said that the poster in question was probably included in the game because Swedish studio Massive Entertainment wanted to put some of its Nordic culture into the game in some way, and that it actually had nothing to do with the next Assassin’s Creed.
“You know what’s crazy about that? That was a complete coincidence,” said McDevitt. “It’s just because The Division is made in Sweden, and they just wanted to put some stuff in there. Whoever the artist was, they just wanted to put in some of their Nordic culture. It had nothing to do with us.”
In fact, according to McDevitt, at that time, Ubisoft Montreal hadn’t even decided on a name for their game. According to him, once people have played Assassin’s Creed Valhalla themselves, they will realize it has nothing to do with the poster.
“I don’t even think this game had a name at the time,” he said. “We always work with a codename, and we always have a few ideas for names. We decide on one eventually, but that was very, very funny. The image that’s in the poster has nothing to do with our game.
“Once you play Valhalla, our game, you’ll see that there’s nothing to do with the poster that was in The Division 2.”
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla will launch this Holiday for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PC, and Stadia. You can learn more about its map size, settlement building mechanic, and online elements through the links. You can also read up on additional gameplay details through here.