Brace yourself, Assassin’s Creed fans – it looks like early copies of the upcoming instalment, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, have broken the street date.
Unsubstantiated reports are beginning to circulate that not only have some fans been able to download the full game early from the PlayStation Store, physical copies have been prematurely sold, too.
There may be light spoilers after this point, so only proceed if you’re happy to be spoiled!
Perhaps most notably, Assassin’s Creed YouTuber The Hidden One recently revealed that he knows someone playing the full game on PS5 “because the PlayStation Store made a mistake”.
Admitting that he could neither prove it or compel anyone to believe him, The Hidden One then revealed that in the leaked footage, he saw that Animus anomalies are back – something not previously confirmed for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
“In the video [the friend with early access] showed me, the player encounters something Animus in the world,” he said.
“A pop up appeared that read: ‘Animus systems breached. Stabilise anomalies and gain data fragments to advance your active strand’.”
The player was then prompted to “press touchpad to open the Animus menu”.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows physical copies being sold before launch
byu/Ajxtt inGamingLeaksAndRumours
Over on the Gaming Leaks and Rumours subreddit it goes even further, with reports that physical copies have similarly been sold early.
While, as yet, there doesn’t seem to be early footage popping up on Twitch or YouTube, now may be a good time to mute key words on your favourite social media apps, just in case…
Last week, Ubisoft signalled its expectations for Assassin’s Creed Shadows in its latest quarterly financial results, in which it describes pre-orders for the game as “solid”.
While the company did not divulge exact pre-order numbers, it said they were “in line with those of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, the second most succesful entry of the franchise”.
Our Katharine said Assassin’s Creed Shadows was “the biggest shake-up of the series in years” during our recent hands-on time with the game, and praised its dual protagonist gameplay. “If Ubisoft can stick the landing on this one, it will be worth the extended wait,” she wrote.