Along with 007 First Light, Bandai Namco’s Echoes of Aincrad also seems to have suffered from a similar fate, with a video featuring many of its major plot beats and cutscenes having been spotted online. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced and Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse were also noted as being part of the leak. However, videos for those haven’t yet started making the rounds online.

These videos are typically submitted to ratings boards directly by developers and publishers in order to get an accurate rating for the game on the way to its release. However, typically, these videos are kept private in order to prevent leaks like this from happening. Unfortunately, the fact that these leaks happened and the videos are circulating online means that players looking forward to these games will have to be careful when scrolling through their social media feeds.

007 First Light is being developed for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. However, while the other versions will be coming out on May 27th, IO Interactive has announced that the Switch 2 version is being pushed back to “later this Summer.” In a statement, the company said that it is “looking forward to bringing you the best game experience possible across all platforms.”

IO Interactive has previously spoken about how 007 First Light will be an origin story for the character, and how the studio wants to make sure that players can appropriately “feel like Bond,” complete with the freedom to improvise without it feeling out of place. In an episode of its “Beyond the Light” series of videos, head writer Michael Vogt said, “In Hitman, you are kind of able to go spectacularly out of character at any given moment, but you can’t really do that with Bond. That feels wrong. He’s too established.”

Rather than approaching things like in a Hitman game, in 007 First Light, IO Interactive instead wants to encourage players to improvise their way through missions. “So, your Bond can be more of a brawler, or he can be clever and talk his way out of situations, or he can stealth around and use gadgets. Those are all valid choices. So, we use choice as a way for players to feel clever and to think on their feet like a proper 00 agent, but without ever actually breaking character,” he explained.

In February, 007 First Light got an extended version of the trailer first released back in December. The trailer gave us a better look at one of the game’s antagonists—Bawma, as played by music legend Lenny Kravitz. The trailer revealed details about the characters, including the fact that he is a leader of Aleph, a black-market arms network that spans half the globe.

When asked by another forum poster why Ubisoft might be “holding the Black Flag remake back” and whether the game is ready, Shinobi602 responded by posting that they “wouldn’t say they’re ‘holding it back’. There’s a reveal and release set, it’s just not time yet. Not too far off.”

The start of the year has seen plenty of rumors about the Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake, with a noteworthy one surrounding a supposed figurine based on the upcoming title being spotted on an online marketplace. The figurine was of protagonist Edward Kenway seated on the ship’s helm, with a black flag sporting the game’s logo swaying behind him. While not too many details could be ascertained from this figurine, Ubisoft decided to get in on it with a joke.

In a wordless response on social media, the Assassin’s Creed account posted a joke image of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas protagonist CJ at the start of the game saying “Ah, s***, here we go again.”

The remake is reportedly titled Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, and was rumored to be originally slated for a March 19 release. However, plans have seemingly changed since then, with recent reports indicating that it has been delayed to 2027.

As for the upcoming State of Play, Sony hasn’t officially confirmed it so far, but it is expected to take place on February 12. The date was revealed thanks to an errant retweet by senior product development director Mihir Sheth of last year’s State of Play announcement. While this is still far from a confirmation, Sheth could have retweeted the post believing it to be part of the marketing for the upcoming showcase.

In the meantime, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach director Hideo Kojima has also returned to the editing bay. While he hasn’t offered any further details beyond noting that this is the first time he is editing a video in 8 months, the timing of his post indicates that he is working on some sort of trailer for the State of Play event.

Since Kojima has previously said that he isn’t interested in working on DLC for Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, preferring instead to release smaller updates for the game, the trailer might be an official announcement for the PC port. Such a port coming out a full year after the original release would fall in line with the original Death Stranding as well, which came out on PS4 in 2019, before eventually making the jump to PC in 2020.

The response is obviously a tongue-in-cheek one, and doesn’t really reveal much. However, the fact that the company isn’t outright denying any of the rumours might indicate that it is simply playing along to add marketing hype to the inevitable announcement of the Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake.

The figurine was first spotted by Twitter user j0nathan, who quickly posted about it on social media. “A guy on Vinted is selling a completely new Edward Kenway figurine and claims it would be released this year,” they wrote (via machine translation). “Knowing that the Black Flag remake was supposed to come out in less than 2 months, could this be the official figurine from the game?”

Ubisoft’s own post was in response to Assassin’s Creed fan account Zephryss, who wrote “This might be the new Edward Kenway figurine for the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake. A guy on Vinted is selling a brand new Edward Kenway figurine and claims it’s releasing this year,” alongside pictures of the figurine.

As we reported earlier this week, the pictures didn’t really reveal anything about who might have made the figurine. However, considering comments from last year, licensed merchandise maker Play Arts might have some involvement with it.

A couple of hosts during a Play Arts livestream indicated that a remake of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag might be in the works. While they didn’t reveal many details, they noted that “something is going on with Edward”.

“Assassin’s Creed fans out there, you should be aware that there is something going on with Edward [Keyway]”, said one host in response to the live chat asking about new Black Flag figures. The other host quickly chimed in by asking “wait has that been announced?”

“I think so, I’m pretty sure I saw rumors about it. No, I definitely saw an article about it”, responded the first host, who would go on to note that, “there’s going to be something going on with Edward, and our PVC 1/8th scale statue will reflect that accordingly.”

The remake of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag—believed to be titled Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced—was originally rumoured for release on March 19. However, plans have seemingly changed, with a recent report saying it has been pushed back to next year. While reasons behind this delay are unknown, the source of the report believes it could simply be a matter of the developers needing more time to polish it up.

Rumours have also been fuelled thanks to music from Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag getting reuploaded onto the Ubisoft Music YouTube channel. However, considering Ubisoft’s recent corporate overhaul, the remake might have been one of the titles affected by delays.

J0nathan also noted that the figurine was a “completely new” one, which might indicate that it was produced relatively recently. Unfortunately, however, pictures of the figurine, while still maintaining Edward Kenway’s general cool-ness, don’t really reveal any details about which company might have made it.

“A guy on Vinted is selling a completely new Edward Kenway figurine and claims it would be released this year,” wrote j0nathan. “Knowing that the Black Flag remake was supposed to come out in less than 2 months, could this be the official figurine from the game?”

There is a chance that Play Arts—a company that works on similar officially-licensed products for franchises like Assassin’s Creed—designed this figurine. The company was spotted last June having inadvertently leaked that a Black Flag remake might be coming sooner than we had thought. While it didn’t reveal too many details, two hosts of a livestream by the company had said that “something is going on with Edward.”

“Assassin’s Creed fans out there, you should be aware that there is something going on with Edward [Keyway]”, said one of them when asked by their chat about why they weren’t showcasing a figure based on the Black Flag protagonist. They were interrupted by the other saying “wait has that been announced?”

“I think so, I’m pretty sure I saw rumors about it. No, I definitely saw an article about it”, responded the first host. The livestream would then continue before the host once again revealed: “So there’s going to be something going on with Edward, and our PVC 1/8th scale statue will reflect that accordingly.”

Going back to j0nathan’s post, they noted that this figurine could be related to the remake that was “supposed to come out in less than 2 months.” However, recent reports have indicated that it has actually been delayed to 2027 after having been originally slated for release on March 19.

The move might have been part of Ubisoft’s larger corporate restructuring which saw the cancellation of several projects, including Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake. Before this delay, however, the report indicates that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced—as it is believed to be named—was going to go gold early in February. Insider Gaming’s Tom Henderson posited that “it could have been full of bugs, which is why they have delayed it.”

Curiously, Ubisoft had also recently re-uploaded 18 tracks from the soundtrack of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag onto its Ubisoft Music channel. Through a community post, the company explained that “we encountered some technical issues with a few of our videos, which we had to reupload.”

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is believed to be in development for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The original came out on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Shortly afterwards, Ubisoft made a community post on the YouTube channel explaining its decision to reupload the music. Rather than outright announcing anything, the company instead cited technical issues as being the main reason behind the music, which apparently forced a reupload.

“Hi there music lovers! We encountered some technical issues with a few of our videos, which we had to reupload. Apologies for the trouble, and hope you enjoy the music,” wrote the company.

While many of the replies to this community post took Ubisoft’s statement at face value, others have questioned the company’s true motives behind the reuploads. “We don’t believe you! Coincidence releasing Black Flag music? I think not,” posted one user.

Rumours about a remaster of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag have been going around for quite some time. Things started heating up over the last year thanks to ambiguous statements made by people seemingly connected to the project, including the voice actor of protagonist Edward Kenway, Matt Ryan. Interacting with a fan during a convention, Ryan asked them when they had beaten the game. On hearing that they did so “a while ago,” Ryan told the fan that they “may have to beat it again,” before going on to note that “there’s a reason I say that but I can’t say anything.”

December saw rumours of the remaster heat up even further, with a title dubbed Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced getting rated through Europe’s video game content rating body PEGI. The rating listed Ubisoft EMEA as the game’s publisher, and rated the title at PEGI 18 thanks to its inclusion of Violence and Bad Language, along with in-game purchases.

Earlier this month, a domain registered to Ubisoft for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced was spotted. It had been registered back in December through GANDI SAS, who has previously registered domains for various Ubisoft franchises, including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Splinter Cell. The registration of this domain indicates that an official announcement will likely be made soon.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, and its upcoming remaster, focuses on the story of Edward Kenway and how he stumbled his way into becoming a bonafide Assassin after frequent meddling
into the affairs of the Templars for his own profit. The title takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy, and as such, has quite a bit of focus on the exploration of remote islands, ship customisation, and naval combat.

For more details about what Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced might include, check out reports of how it won’t feature modern-day sections, and will make use of weather effects while also featuring an improved world map. Also check out our thoughts on what made Black Flag such a special game.

While the Violence and Bad Language ensure the PEGI 18 rating is justified, it’s worth noting the inclusion of In-Game Purchases. The original offered resource packs and Elite Plans to Edward Kenway’s ship, the Jackdaw, for real money. Whether Ubisoft will stick with the same or introduce more egregious microtransactions, as seen with recent titles (including the Assassin’s Creed Shadows X Attack on Titan crossover, which was heavily panned).

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced hasn’t been officially announced by Ubisoft, but rumors have run wild for years now. Even Edward’s voice actor, Matt Ryan, teased it and was threatened with a lawsuit in return. With an alleged launch by March 31st, 2026, the remake could very well be at The Game Awards. For more details on what’s potentially changing, head here.