New Assassin's Creed Reportedly Coming Before Assassin's Creed Infinity

Ubisoft has turned an Assassin's Creed Valhalla expansion into a stand-alone game to pad out its release schedule, according to a report published Wednesday by Bloomberg.

The new game, code-named Rift, will star Basim, an assassin introduced in Valhalla, and will be of a smaller scope than the game's recent entries, according to Bloomberg's anonymous sources. It will focus more on stealth gameplay, and won't have the same massive open world to which AC players have become accustomed. It's set for release in either late 2022 or some time in 2023.

Rift aims to fill the gap between Valhalla and Assassin's Creed Infinity, Ubisoft's reported plan to transform Assassin's Creed from a yearly release to a live-service game encompassing several historical settings.

Rift is reportedly one of many Assassin's Creed expansions that have had their courses altered over the last year, with others having been cancelled.

Ubisoft declined to comment on the report.

Recent years have dealt Ubisoft myriad troubles, both internally and on the production front. A reckoning with sexual misconduct and harassment led to the ouster of several top executives in 2020 and dealt a lingering blow to morale. Many employees still feel the company has not done enough to fix the problems in its culture, and turnover has remained high in the years since.

Skull & Bones, the online pirate game based on technology designed for Assassin's Creed, has been in progress for years now, and faced multiple delays over the course of its reportedly fraught development cycle. Beyond Good & Evil 2, another highly anticipated title, is reportedly still in pre-production after five years of development. And the remake of Prince of Persia announced in September 2020 has been delayed indefinitely.

Ubisoft plans to release a collection of three of its most beloved Assassin's Creed games, the Ezio Collection, for the Switch on Feb. 17.