Assassin’s Creed Rift is delayed until the middle of 2023, a new report from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier says. Bloomberg’s sources said Ubisoft stealthily announced the delay during its recent earnings call, where it said a smaller, unannounced premium game was being pushed back alongside the upcoming Avatar game. Ubisoft didn’t confirm or deny the news to Bloomberg, so as yet, the delay is technically still a rumor.
The same goes for Rift itself, though it’s one of the worst-kept secrets in gaming at this point. Bloomberg previously reported that Assassin’s Creed Rift was originally developed as part of an expansion for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, before Ubisoft decided to turn it into a standalone experience to fill out a sparse release calendar. More recent rumors suggest Rift is set in Baghdad. That’s obviously far removed from Eivor’s exploits in Scandinavia and Britain, so it sounds like Rift has probably undergone quite a few changes already.
Schreier’s sources said Rift is “far behind” schedule, though Ubisoft still reportedly plans on revealing it – or did plan to – in September as part of their showcase on the series’ future.
Meanwhile, Schreier also said Assassin’s Creed Infinity, the (also unannounced) live service Assassin’s Creed game is still under development – but won’t release in 2022. That leaves Ubisoft with just one new PC game coming out in the year’s latter half: Skull and Bones.
While the pirate game looks an awful lot like Far Cry meets Sea of Thieves, PCGamesN’s Chris Capel came away from an extended first look at the swashbuckling saga with mostly positive impressions, minus the rather cluttered user interface.
Eivor’s journey isn’t over just yet, though. Valhalla’s roguelite mode is still set to release later in 2022.