Assassin’s Creed Mirage is once again in the limelight following its release back in October, though this time for something rather odd. Following comments online and social media posts from confused Assassin’s Creed players encountering random pop-up advertisements related to Ubisoft’s Black Friday sale for Mirage, the developer says that these in-game ad encounters are unintentional and the result of a “technical error.”
While playing other entries in Ubisoft’s action-adventure game series, like AC Odyssey, players were hit with annoying pop-up ads for Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Black Friday sale as they tried to open in-game maps and menus. This full-screen ad featured two options: you could either close the ad and proceed with your game or opt to buy Mirage.
Ubisoft claims in a post that the pop-up ad “was the result of a technical error,” saying that the team has now “fixed” the issue. The dev goes on to describe how its intention with the Black Friday ad was to “display a promotion for Assassin’s Creed Mirage as part of the franchise news in the main menu of other Assassin’s Creed games” and not to have it appear in-game.
The developer continues, saying that it wants to “ensure the best player experience possible,” admitting that the pop-ups were “disruptive” but nonetheless “promptly removed.” Ubisoft’s thread addressing the issue comes a couple of days after viral posts from players encountering ads began to emerge online, with some accumulating hundreds of replies.
Those replying aren’t so sure about the developer’s explanation of the ads, though. Some players responding to the dev’s thread with speculate that Ubisoft was testing a new ad system and only pulled it upon negative feedback from the community. Others speculate that the ads were a “marketing stunt,” asking that Ubisoft be more “transparent.”
In-game ad placements are certainly nothing new, with older open-world games like Saints Row 2 featuring in-game ads for real-world brands on virtual billboards, but this latest case is especially intrusive and was arguably never going to go down well, regardless of the reasoning.
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