Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is in a peculiar situation. Ubisoft hasn’t hinted one way or the other regarding the existence of Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok meaning that, even with all of the rumors surrounding the game, it’s still just a rumored project that could just end up being fake. However, Ubisoft did confirm that an Assassin’s Creed game of some kind is coming out later this year. Looking at the history of Assassin’s Creed leaks, one could gather enough information to make a guess as to when Ubisoft will finally reveal what it has been working on.
Ubisoft is a consistent company that has released games regularly enough to the point that one could notice a pattern in its release plans. This is especially true for the Assassin’s Creed franchise which is why predicting Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok’s release date is also a possibility. Ubisoft’s triple-a series is also notorious for having leaks appear months in advance of pretty much every AC game to date, which could explain why there are so many rumors on AC Ragnarok to begin with. Interestingly, the only game in the series that was never leaked in advance of a reveal was AC 2 in 2009.
History of Assassin’s Creed Leaks
Ubisoft’s AC series is indeed known for its leaks. They have become somewhat of a tradition for the franchise to the point that any new leaks on Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok are treated seriously until the new information is proved definitively wrong. It’s so common for the series that Ubisoft has even planned around expected leaks in the past, which makes its radio silence on AC Ragnarok all the more intriguing. Assassin’s Creed Liberation, which was originally a PS Vita game that got ported to consoles, was astonishingly leaked three times for each wave of consoles that it hit.
The very first game in the Assassin’s Creed series was leaked, via a patent filing, in April 2006, a month before its official reveal. AC Brotherhood was leaked when Ubisoft registered a domain name for the game in April 2010, a few weeks before its reveal at E3 2010. Exactly a year later, AC Revelations was leaked in April 2011 via a Facebook post with an official reveal that followed at E3 2011, ostensibly replicating the release pattern of AC Brotherhood.
In 2012, this leak-to-reveal pattern of the series happened again but much earlier than it ever did. Promotional art for AC 3 was leaked in February of that year which was followed by an official trailer from Ubisoft shortly after in March. Similarly, AC 4 Black Flag had its art leak online right before its official reveal in February 2013. Predictably, the next games in the series followed the same pattern. Ubisoft released two AC games in 2014, AC Unity and AC Rogue, which both had in-game assets leak online in March of that year, which Ubisoft confirmed to be real shortly after.
Notably, 2014 was a big year for Assassin’s Creed leaks, as three major games in the series were leaked that year (which includes AC Unity and AC Rogue). The third game that was leaked in 2014 was AC Syndicate, which Ubisoft confirmed to be real and later officially revealed in May 2015. Surprisingly, information for the next game in the series, AC Origins (which came out in October 2017), was leaked online as early as January 2016. The leak correctly predicted the ancient Egyptian setting as well as the absence of the franchise in 2016 (excluding the Assassin’s Creed movie).
Hilariously, Ubisoft would have been leak-free with the reveal of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at E3 2018, if not for a picture of a promotional Assassin’s Creed keychain that appeared online days before. As for the future of the franchise, AC Ragnarok rumors started up in February 2019 which has given a base for a bunch of other rumors.
What This Means for Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok
When a Ubisoft artist posted some Viking-inspired art back in February 2019, it got a lot of fans talking about a Viking-themed AC game. The idea only got further traction after a particular in-game poster was found in The Division 2 which depicts a Viking with the apple of Eden from Assassin’s Creed. Rumors have only grown since then but Ubisoft has remained steadily silent. Going by the company’s track record of leaks, it’s fair to say that the next Assassin’s Creed game will be revealed, or leaked, in the coming months leading up to E3 2020.
Ubisoft is a massive corporation with thousands of employees, so it’s no surprise that it can’t keep everything under a lid until a proper reveal. With thousands of other moving parts in the Ubisoft machine (such as the keychain manufacturer that helped leak AC Odyssey), one can safely expect the next game to be leaked in some form or another within the coming weeks. Considering how the majority of Assassin’s Creed games were leaked over the months ranging from February to April, a new leak can potentially occur quite soon.
There are a lot of games coming out in March 2020, in addition to events like GDC, which is seeing more and more publishers pull out of the event due to concern over the coronavirus outbreak. With the outbreak having as much of an effect as it is on the gaming industry, it’s possible that Ubisoft holds off on any official reveal for the next Assassin’s Creed game, at least for another few weeks. Due to the nature of these leaks cutting it so close to the actual reveal of a given game, any delay of a reveal by Ubisoft could also potentially delay any leaks from happening.
If nothing happens in March, then it’s likely that Ubisoft will be cornered into following the familiar pattern of having a game leak in April followed by an official reveal at E3 in June. With the way things are going, this is the most likely scenario to occur in the near future. Ubisoft typically uses E3 as a way to showcase the next big game in the AC franchise, as those games usually come out in the fall. With some big Ubisoft games confirmed to be coming out within the next year, it seems all but guaranteed that Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok will be shown off soon.
Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok is rumored to be in development.
