Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a game with a title that feels like it ought to have a colon or an em dash somewhere in there, is finally here and it's selling like whatever the nautical equivalent of hotcakes is. Hardtack, I guess. Not only did it sell 2 million copies in a single day, a recent financial report includes Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot saying "Two weeks in, the title has already exceeded the annual expectations we had."

"The strong launch of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced in early July by Vantage Studios is an encouraging proof point," he said. "The game is the highest-rated Assassin's Creed title since the original Black Flag, and we are very pleased with the praise it received from players … I would like to warmly thank the teams whose talent and dedication brought it to life."

Guillemot's thanks come at an interesting time, given that nearly a third of Ubisoft Barcelona was laid off just weeks ago, triggering a labor strike. This was part of a larger wave of layoffs which affected hundreds of workers. As it has done with a variety of Ubisoft games, Ubisoft Barcelona supported the development of Black Flag Resynced and "did all the underwater levels" as tech and gameplay animator Manel Cota posted on X back then.

Regardless, the ludicrous sales Black Flag Resynced is enjoying seem like a signal that the original game's reputation is strong enough to carry this remake through potential turnoffs for prospective players, such as the day one DLC, simplified swordfights, and in-game shop. In his review, PC Gamer's Morgan Park called the game "a well-made, but inessential remake that loses more than it gains."

If you've been hitting the high seas yourself, check out our guide on how to see all the new stuff—if not, the original is there and as good as ever.

Getting lost in history in Assassin's Creed Origins

By Andy Kelly

In Assassin’s Creed we usually visit civilisations at their peak, whether it’s Renaissance Italy or London at the height of the Industrial Revolution. Ubisoft could have done this for Origins too, taking us to the golden age of Ancient Egypt. But instead we visit this period of history in its twilight years. The pharaonic line is coming to an end and the Greeks have dramatically transformed the landscape, culture and religious practices of this part of the world.

This makes for a fascinating architectural contrast. In the largest cities you see statues of Egyptian gods crumbling and forgotten, outnumbered by pristine, polished marble statues of Greek legends. And even monuments, like the pyramids of Giza and the Great Sphinx, are already falling apart. There’s a tragedy to seeing this grand civilisation fade away as foreign invaders erect gleaming temples and acropolises across the desert.

It might be the best open world Ubisoft has ever created. While riding through the barren Green Mountains region on horseback, idly exploring with no specific goal in mind, I crested a hill and saw a sprawling Roman city resting in a misty valley below. It stopped me in my tracks. The scale is breathtaking, making even the vast cities of previous Assassin’s Creed games seem small in comparison.

Size isn’t everything when it comes to open worlds, of course. Just look at something like Just Cause, which is enormous but consists of little more than large swathes of dull, featureless countryside and a few unconvincing cities. Origins keeps things interesting by splitting its world up into distinct regions, from the oasis town of Siwa and the rocky canyons of the Black Desert, to the ruin-littered sands of Giza and the cultural epicentre that is Alexandria.

Crocodile tears

Faiyum is one of the prettiest and most interesting locations in the game. Founded to worship Sobek, who takes the form of a crocodile, this city is built around a network of canals and dominated by a beautiful, ornate temple dedicated to the god.

Inside, the priests worship a giant crocodile adorned with gold and jewels who they believe is the embodiment of Sobek, and one quest involves hero Bayek trying to find out why the sacred creature has mysteriously started weeping blood.

It took me a hefty 27 hours to finish Origins and there are still areas on the map cloaked in black, indicating that I haven’t travelled there yet. It’s obscenely huge, although the length is artificially extended somewhat by forcing you to reach a certain level before attempting the next story quest.

Exploring Egypt isn’t as thrilling as sailing the Caribbean in Black Flag, which remains my favourite entry in the series. But it’s a much richer, more convincing world overall, and a precious chance to step into history and experience it firsthand.

One of the largest and best changes in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is the new combat system. It's still faithful to the original's lethality, but it's no longer just about standing still waiting to counter an attack.

But you know what I don't love? The confusing removal of hidden blade combat and the ability to pick up enemy weapons. It's dual cutlasses all the way, matey, which gets old pretty fast. In fact, it's been a pretty big point of contention for fans of the original game ever since the remake was revealed.

Black Flag Resynced game director Richard Knight has spoken on the topic in a new interview with YouTuber JorRaptor, revealing why these mechanics were cut and if they're ever coming back.

Firstly, don't stop asking for it: "We can't make any promises [but] we're listening to the community," Knight explains. "We're interested in what people want the most," he adds, and I'd say that these missing features are surely high up the list.

As for the second bit, their absence came down to prioritising resources, Knight says. "During development, if you looked at Edward—he's so powerful right now and has so many tools—and so we prioritised core combat because we needed to nail that."

"Something like throwing weapons, while it's cool, it's just like 'he already has ten ways to kill somebody'. So, given the cost to reinvent the feature and rebuild it from the ground up with today's characters, rigs, and animations, there's a lot more that goes into it. It was just lower priority for us."

Core combat is, obviously, the most critical part of Edward's kit—I love the kick, sweep, and easier access to the rope dart—but these were iconic features of the original Black Flag. It means you can't steal a musket and do a cool, running takedown with it, for example, or pick up an axe and start swinging.

But there's hope yet that Ubisoft will figure out how to add them to Resynced post-launch. I suppose that's one of the benefits of Ubisoft cramming an expanded cash shop and weekly challenges into the remake: more incentive to expand on the base game and keep us all sailing the high seas.

Assassin's Creed Unity, it hardly needs to be said, had its share of problems. At launch, the game which was intended to be Ubisoft's big technical showcase on the then-new PS4 and Xbox One was rife with sometimes-hilarious bugs, filled with map barf, crammed with microtransactions, had a rather odd emphasis on co-op gameplay in a historically singleplayer series, and was—a little garnish—venomously reactionary about its setting: the French Revolution.

And yet, and yet, I maintain it was actually one of the best Assassin's Creed games, and represented a much more interesting avenue the series could have gone down had Ubisoft not embraced full Witcher 3-ification in games like Odyssey, Origins, Shadows, and Valhalla.

I would like to call Jean Guesdon, former AC brand content director, as witness to Unity's defence. In a chat with the most recent Retro Gamer magazine (via GamesRadar), he came to the game's defence, hailing it as an overlooked entry in the series that fell victim to its own ambition.

Unity is "one of the most underestimated games in the series," says Guesdon. That's not to say it's unfairly underestimated—Guesdon is clear that the game had its troubles: "Sadly, Unity’s launch was a huge challenge because of several reasons," he says.

"Like Assassin’s Creed 3 with AnvilNext, Unity’s development was impacted by the incredible new tech allowing for 1:1 scale, interiors, massive crowds, a brand-new parkour system and an integrated multiplayer component."

All that whizzbang tech gave the devs a lot of plates to spin: "Pushing content and tech at the same time is always very demanding, and this opus maybe pushed too many things at once," says Guesdon. But dammit, it had ideas—"Unity’s team decided that the key component would be Paris, one city only. Hence all decisions were made in order to make the setting shine and ensure players would experience the French Revolution like never before.

"This is why all mechanics and systems were more dense and focussed," says Guesdon. "Maybe we could have done better in terms of progressive introduction but overall I don’t think the experience was too complicated."

I adore Unity's humid Paris streets, thronged with sans-culottes, and I love the fact that it's the only Assassin's Creed game I've ever played where stealth felt like it served a purpose—where combat carried any actual risk. Will Ubi ever try to pick up those ideas, and return to the dense, one-city game format of yore? Well, it sort of tried that with Mirage, and people didn't like it, but I'm holding out hope regardless.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a massive success for Ubisoft, having sold two million copies in a day and breaking the series' concurrent player records on Steam by nearly 40,000. Despite this good news, the company is planning to lay off 51 developers at Ubisoft Barcelona. These layoffs were announced last month, alongside reductions at Ubisoft's teams in Winnipeg and Belgrade.

Ubisoft Barcelona has a long history of supporting the publisher's larger studios, including Assassin's Creed, The Crew, Ghost Recon, and Immortals: Fenyx Rising. Of course, its latest efforts have been on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, where it was responsible for all the underwater sections. Those beautiful (terrifying) diving bell sites? Brought to life by Ubisoft Barcelona.

"Ubisoft Barcelona did all the underwater levels," explains Manel Cota, a tech and gameplay animator on the team, on social media. "And that same team is being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve :)"

This frustration from a blow right as you should be celebrating is echoed by quality assurance lead Isabel Codina García. "Today is a bittersweet day," García said on social media. After having worked on the Black Flag remake for over two and a half years, "the whole AC team at Ubisoft Barcelona was informed of a collective redundancy plan."

"After seven years at Ubisoft Barcelona, this is not how I imagined it would end. But I am genuinely grateful for the people I have met and everything I have learned along the way."

Ubisoft Barcelona will ne holding a strike for three days from r/gaming

But the team isn't going quietly. The Spanish union La Confederación General del Trabajo has called for a three-day strike, starting today, over the planned cuts at Ubisoft Barcelona. "After an intense production, the company claims a 'strategic shift' to justify these layoffs," the flyer reads. "After years of dedication to our team, the company has turned its back on us. We will never see the fruits of our labour, and the reward for our hard work will be the loss of our jobs."

I've sunk legendary galleons, sailed across the Caribbean procuring plunder, and I've experienced Edward Kenway's redemption arc from start to finish. But upon rolling credits on Ubisoft's nostalgia-fuelled remake, I came to a realisation: almost everything good in Black Flag Resynced exists in the original game.

Sure, it's prettier and quality of life changes do help sand away the rougher edges, but removing all friction from a game isn't necessarily a good thing. Take stealth sequences, for instance—Black Flag Resynced now allows you to crouch anywhere, but it also removes all fail conditions from stealth missions, making the system somewhat redundant.

This give-and-take is something I experienced frequently with the remake. Resynced makes climbing far faster, but this means you no longer have to think about movement as you zoom up the side of almost every structure in sight. And don't even get me started on removing hidden blade combat, fisticuffs, and temporary weapons. The new cutlass-only fighting may be slightly harder, but it's ultimately bland thanks to fewer options.

I've now spent 40 hours with Black Flag Resynced, but I find myself unconvinced it ever needed a remake, especially one which more often chooses to change core components over retaining the feel of the original. It'd be a lie to say Resynced isn't good, but almost everything good in it is still good in Black Flag. Better, in fact, if a fond nostalgic adventure be your wish and you'd prefer not to toss a handful of dubloons in the sand for a game you likely own.

Hopping into the original Black Flag after playing Resynced, I was shocked by how remarkably well the game has aged. The combat still feels fluid (albeit easy thanks to chain finishers) but it benefits from the classic high profile, low profile control scheme that came to define the first three Assassin's Creed games—something the remake also does away with.

The movement and climbing also feel far more grounded. Instead of zipping up the sides of cathedrals, you've got to route yourself somewhat, especially since Black Flag includes a bunch of tailing sequences that require you to keep a target in sight at all times. Many players despised these, but after playing Resynced where stealth never mattered and I could murder my way through every situation, the challenge felt positively refreshing.

Alongside the visual upgrade, one of the few unequivocally positive changes is that ship combat feels far more dramatic in Resynced. The Jackdaw (Ed's ship) has new firing modes and officer upgrades, but naval battles are also significantly harder. Where, in the original, you could feasibly defeat a legendary ship without a fully upgraded Jackdaw, that feels almost impossible in the remake—ships fire fast, accurately, and use mortars more.

If you found naval combat in Black Flag too easy, this is definitely a good change. For my part, I found that the tough ship battles came to revolve around Lucy Baldwin (one of the new officers) and her Perfect Brace ability, which all but mitigates damage when you time a brace appropriately.

Even 13 years later, Black Flag's story is still first-rate, exploring, as it does, a man driven by greed and personal ambition, qualities that still make him a breath of fresh air by comparison with Assassin's Creed's usual goody two shoes protagonists. It's so well-written, in fact, that the new quests Resynced adds can't help but come off poorly by comparison.

The same goes for retaining the in-game shop that lets you purchase cosmetics that look like they're right out of Skull and Bones, or even buy the locations of in-game collectibles for real money. And don't forget the inexplicable addition of the weird Animus projects from Assassin Creed Shadows. I'm not sure who thought adding a battlepass mechanic to the remake was a good idea, but honestly, it sucks.

Ubisoft added many of these elements to modernise Black Flag, but ultimately creates a juxtaposition between old and new which really doesn't reflect well on either Ubisoft itself or the state of our industry. Black Flag was a formative game for me, arguably the beginning of open world bloat for the series, but a fun, well-written adventure with some of the best side content around—no wonder it's one of the few Assassin's Creed games I 100%-ed.

But Resynced ultimately doesn't feel like the same game to me. I thought it did, but then I went back and played the original Black Flag and remembered what it was actually like. I suppose it depends why you're playing a remake. If your goal is to revisit your past experiences and nostalgia, the original will serve you far better in that endeavor.

After Traffic and Breaking Bad used it for scenes set there it became know as "the Mexican filter", though it's sometimes used for scenes set in South Asia or anywhere a bit tropical. You may recognize it as "the piss filter" that stained the original incarnation of Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's the yellow gradient that's usually intended to make things look warm, and it's not to everyone's taste. Like piss, I guess.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is the latest videogame to fall under the stream, making Edward Kenway look a bit more tanned and the waters look a bit more green. I didn't think it was particularly excessive until I saw some before and after screenshots with it removed, and yeah, it does seem a bit dehydrated actually.

These images come courtesy of Blu, a modder who has cooked up a reshade called ACBlackFlag Natural Colors: "A simple reshade preset that removes the ugly yellow filter from the game and corrects oversaturated colors."

You'll need the latest version of Reshade to install it. While you're at it, the ACBlackFlagFix will let you uncap the cutscene framerate, set cloth to animate at 60 fps, and remove pillarboxing, while Fast Launch will get you through those annoying startup videos at a rate of knots.

I gotta hand this one to the suits: I thought gamers might find a $60 price tag on a rehash of a 13-year-old Assassin's Creed game to be a bit much, and apparently I was wrong. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced sold more than two million copies in just one day, and has handily surpassed Steam player counts of newer games in the series, including Assassin's Creed Shadows.

"Dash my Buttons... Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has already passed 2 million copies sold!" Ubisoft wrote on X the day after the overhauled Black Flag launched. "Whether you're sailing with us again, or stepping aboard the Jackdaw for the first time: THANK YOU from the bottom of ARR hearts."

It's notable here that Ubisoft refers specifically to two million copies sold, as opposed to the "one million players" it used to characterize the success of Assassin's Creed Shadows in its first day of release. As Joshua Wolens noted at the time, it left us uncertain as to how Shadows was really doing compared to Valhalla, although Ubisoft later said Shadows had put up the "second-highest day one sales revenues in Assassin's Creed franchise history."

A more straightforward comparison can be found in the concurrent player numbers on Steam, where Black Flag Resynced stands head and shoulders above the rest. Here too, some differences need to be accounted for: Ubisoft had a years-long no Steam dalliance so Valhalla didn't arrive on that storefront until a couple years after its debut on the Epic Games Store, and Shadows was weighed down by coordinated culture war nonsense over the presence of the Black samurai Yasuke. Shadows also costs $10 more than Black Flag Resynced.

Still, it's about as close to apples-to-apples as we're going to get, and the numbers make it clear: Nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

(These are ordered by their all-time peak concurrent player count.)

"Black Flag has always held a special place in the heart of the community, and ours." Assassin's Creed brand boss Martin Schelling said. "Bringing it back with Resynced was a promise to that passion for Edward’s adventures, and to the unique sense of freedom players experienced back then. Seeing two million players set sail on day one, along with the great reviews from critics, is the greatest reward we could have hoped for."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is here and violently colon-less, despite my deep-rooted ancestral urge to fill every gap between those words with dots and dashes, as our forefathers did in the days of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.

But it's not Ubisoft's crimes against grammar that prompted the game to hit Mixed Steam reviews at launch (it's picked up since, and at time of writing is at Mostly Positive). It was the fact that, in typical Ubisoft fashion, the game's store page ripples with microtransactions for outfits, weapons, and the obligatory 'Pay $5 to play less of the $60 game you just bought' map-reveal pack.

The reviews were home to a lot of people who felt nickel-and-dimed. "What's the point of getting the deluxe version when, immediately in game, there's $84.91-worth [of] 'DLC' that you don't own" asked one. "I want a single player experience I can enjoy WITHOUT microtransactions," wrote another.

Ubi, perhaps inadvisably, is actually responding to some of these reviews, though. The studio's boilerplate response to a bunch of complaints about the game's microtransactions reads as follows:

We've seen your feedback since launch, and we're reading all of it. Thank you for caring this much about Black Flag Resynced. We want to be clear on one point: the standard edition is the full, complete experience. Every mission, every island, the full story and the complete world are all there, with nothing held back. The additional packs are entirely optional extras for players who want them, never a requirement to enjoy or complete the game.

We'll keep listening as you play!

At least one positive review that mentioned the microtransactions got a differently-worded but similar "We hear you" response. "The frustration around day-one DLC is something we take seriously," Ubi said in that one, while reiterating that the game's DLC isn't a 100% necessary purchase.

Which certainly strikes me as a little odd! I can think of two possible explanations here. Either Ubi genuinely thinks people are going to experience some sort of Damascene conversion upon being confronted with the corporation's unassailable logic—which would be very silly—or it's just coating a fairly catty 'You control the buttons you press' response in anodyne marketing speak. Which would also be silly, but at least in a kind of amusing way.

I've not touched the remake myself, but our Rory wasn't happy with how Ubisoft had tried to relentlessly monetise the Black Flag remake when he was playing it. Somehow, I doubt a copy-paste assurance that the DLC isn't necessary to beat the game will make him feel any better about it.

Our reviewer Morgan actually agrees with Ubi that the DLC is entirely ignorable outfits and weapons, but therein lies the tackiness of the whole affair. What's actually annoying, he reckons, is how easy it is to accidentally end up on the store page during normal play—when you press Start to pause, pressing Start again to unpause will actually take you to the store tab. To leave the pause menu, you actually need to hit B/Circle. Diabolical stuff.

For the most part, the long-awaited and worst-kept secret, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, is very faithful to one of my favourite games from 13 years ago. And anything that's brand-new, like some islands, the ship officers, and an extended story, fits in pretty seamlessly, almost like they were there in the original.

But you know what I don't remember from the original Black Flag? A microtransaction store filled with obnoxious outfits, faux battle passes, and weekly challenges. You know where I've seen that before? The RPG era of Assassin's Creed. Where I hated it.

In a full-priced remake of a 13-year-old swashbuckler, and a single-player game no less, Ubisoft decided to tack on one of the most distasteful cases of monetisation. You're greeted by the store on the main menu, little adverts when you pause the game, and it's actually fewer buttons to access the shop in-game than it is to save your progress. That's neat.

Inside this store you'll see very immersion-breaking outfits that I'm sure must appeal to someone, otherwise they wouldn't exist. I'll stick to my pirate outfits. Though I suppose it is being faithful to the original Black Flag in letting you buy resources and the 'Map Pack' that just reveals all of the treasure maps, Mayan stones, and so on. I mean, you could just Google that if you're lazy.

So, you might say that I shouldn't complain because it doesn't really affect me. True, to an extent—I won't buy exploitative map packs or these gaudy skins, so I won't see them in my game. But there's still a cash shop shoehorned into a "faithfully enhanced remake". That's not what I'd call faithful or enhanced.

More importantly, it undermines one of the key areas I'd have liked the remake to improve—the lack of new outfits in Resynced is one of my main disappointments. I want more costumes to find while exploring the world, especially now that it's bigger. Instead, the original outfits have simply been shifted out of the merchants and into chests across the map. The new skins Ubisoft has created, you've got to pay for separately.

Then there are the Animus Projects and whatnot directly lifted from Assassin's Creed Shadows. There are free (thankfully) reward tracks that look like battle passes, and you progress them by completing weekly Anomaly challenges. There's the Exchange store where you can trade Keys for Connor's iconic robes—I can only assume that Altair's and Ezio's robes, which were present in the original and are now mysteriously absent, will appear in the store in the future update.

Now look, Ubisoft, I'm not logging on each week to complete mindless challenges like it's a live-service multiplayer shooter. Just let me find the damn outfits by exploring the beautiful open world you've created and diligently expanded on in Resynced. Please.

Ubisoft was presented with the perfect opportunity to iterate on what many, myself included, would claim is the best Assassin's Creed game. And in as many ways as it has, it's also taken a step back. Content locked behind unnecessary, mindless challenges and microtransactions could instead have been fun rewards for the new activities and locations the team has added. If Black Flag Resynced is faithful to anything, it's Ubisoft's obsession with trying to pinch my dubloons. Talk about the golden age of piracy.

Black Flag Resynced has finally launched, and with it, a reprisal of the eternal debate surrounding the different stripes of Assassin's Creed combat. As Morgan notes in our review, Resynced ultimately "loses more than it gains" thanks to its wide-ranging changes masquerading as quality of life, and I'm inclined to agree.

For me, the most glaring offender here are the fights. Now don't get me wrong, Black Flag's combat was a bit of a joke, an almost cinematic experience of watching an endless array of beautifully brutal finisher animations play out before your eyes, as Edward terminated his fifth ship crew that day. It was cakewalk combat, and it's even easier to see that if you return to Black Flag after playing Resynced.

The counter window is absurdly long and you only have to kill one enemy to chain finisher everyone else around you. But what Black Flag did have was choice. You could whip out your hidden blades and decimate enemies in a more low profile manner, pick up a massive axe and swing it about your head, or even carry and reload a musket, and each weapon had its own bespoke melee animations. I remember being amazed the first time I killed a fella with a musket in Black Flag that they'd even made animations for it.

Resynced, by comparison, only lets you use boring old cutlasses, and I struggle to see how removing a vast swathe of situational weaponry is an upgrade. For my part, I almost exclusively used hidden blades, throwing knives, and the occasional musket in the original—I literally would've unequipped my cutlasses if I could have. So playing through Black Flag Resynced in its entirety with them didn't really feel like the same game to me.

Not to say that Resynced doesn't have some decent ideas combat wise. Its kicks-on-demand are fun, and it's certainly a tad more challenging than Black Flag ever was, but what I struggle to understand is why that increase in difficulty couldn't have combined with the original's weapon choice? All Black Flag's combat really needed to be better was removing the endless chain finishers and reducing the counter window—that alone would've made a huge difference.

I feel like the removal of temporary weapons also fundamentally misunderstands that combat isn't their only use. Having a musket, for instance, lets you take out troublesome sharpshooters in towers or on ship tops—the only way to do that now is get close and hope your pistol has the range, or climb up and kick them off. Throwing knives let you quickly kill enemies that spot you at a distance, so are useful in stealth, but also slick as hell.

These were never only weapons for pure combat, but tools that changed how you approached situations, which is the core premise of Assassin's Creed, and something you kind of needed before Resynced removed fail conditions for stealth missions. The saddest part is that we have a new enemy with a blunderbuss. I feel like that would have been an incredible temporary weapon to pick up and use. What did we get instead? A rope dart.

Resynced's combat is certainly passable, it just isn't Black Flag combat. You can't remove viable playstyles from a game and then claim it's a true remake. If I can't play a remake the same way I played the original, it's something else entirely. But that's ultimately my issue with Black Flag Resynced—it may be beautiful and have better ship combat, but its myriad changes mean it doesn't retain the feel of the original, something I realised when I went back and played Black Flag after finishing Resynced.

Is there anything more piratey than searching for buried treasure? I think not. Digging up the treasure map locations was one of my favourite side activities in the original game, and that's not changed in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. If you completed everything in the original and thought you knew it like the back of your hand, you don't now. The tectonic plates have shifted, as the remake has moved the location of major islands, and the clues are different too.

All Black Flag Resynced treasure map locations

There are 27 treasure maps in Black Flag Resynced, most of which line up with the original game, plus a few extras. If you're wondering where the old Anotto Bay to Principe map has gone, that's more or less been replaced by Blackbeard's Treasure quest.

To be able to dig up the buried treasure, you need to have the associated map—you can't skip straight to the reward, sorry. That's why I've also included where you can find each map.

Speaking of booty, buried treasure chests generally include a handful of Reales and either an Ultimate Ship Plan upgrade, a Design Plan, or some art for the Great Inagua collection, making them a worthwhile distraction while not murdering Templars and boarding ships.

Here's where to find each buried treasure chest via their coordinates and the rewards you'll get, sorted into the order you're likely to encounter each clue (some are locked behind story progress or the Treasure Dealer at Great Inagua):

Cape Bonavista

• Rewards: 1,500 Reales

Havana

• Rewards: The Queen Anne's Figurehead design plan, 3,000 Reales

Salt Lagoon

• Rewards: Serpent Figurehead design plan, 3,000 Reales

New Bone

• Rewards: Maize Deity, 3,000 Reales

Abaco Island

• Rewards: Earth Monster relief, 2,500 Reales

Andreas Island

• Rewards: Harpoon Strength ultimate plan, 3,000 Reales

Nassau

• Rewards: Elite Sails design plan, 3,000 Reales

Isla Providencia

• Rewards: Governor Outfit, 1,000 Reales

Anotto Bay

• Rewards: Crimson Cloak outfit, 2,400 Reales

Kingston

• Rewards: Gilded Hull design plan, 3,000 Reales

San Juan

• Rewards: Fire Barrel Strength ultimate plan, 3,000 Reales

Petite Caverne

• Rewards: Heavy Shot Storage ultimate plan, 3,000 Reales

Pinos Isle

• Rewards: Ivory Wheel design plan, 3,000 Reales

Matanzas

• Rewards: Mortar Storage ultimate plan, 3,000 Reales

Tulum

• Rewards: Fire Barrel Storage ultimate plan, 3,000 Reales

Jiquey

• Rewards: Baroque Guitar, 2,500 Reales

Cumberland Bay

• Rewards: 4,000 Reales

Princípe

• Rewards: Standard Bearer art, 1,000 Reales

Cayman Sound

• Rewards: 4,800 Reales

Ambergris Key

• Rewards: Pirate Captain outfit, 2,400 Reales

Misteriosa

• Rewards: Heavy Shot Strength ultimate plan, 3,600 Reales

Long Bay

• Rewards: Scottish Broadswords (rare cutlass)

Mystery Island (Weathered)

• Rewards: Persian Scimitars (legendary cutlass), Gargoyle's Breath (legendary pistol)

Sacrifice Island (Preserved)

• Rewards: Shade and Shadow Robes, Wooden Eyeball (legendary trinket)

Florida (Tattered)

• Rewards: Elite Ship Wheel, Gilt Lined Sails, Sleek Crew Attire

Santanillas (Digested)

• Rewards: Hunter Outfit, Hunter's Amulet (rare trinket)

Finding Blackbeard's Treasure in Black Flag Resynced is actually a lot tougher than the game's other treasure maps, mainly because it doesn't give you any coordinates, forcing you to rely on your knowledge of the Caribbean. This is a new quest that was added in Resynced, but you won't get it until after you complete the Do Not Go Gently main quest.

Edward finds the treasure map hidden in Blackbeard's hat, which starts the hunt, so you can't miss it. Below I'll explain where the map points to, and how to navigate the area it's contained within.

Where to find Blackbeard's Treasure in Black Flag Resynced

The location Blackbeard's Map points to is Anotto Bay (coordinates 590,245) to the north of Kingston on the north coast of the island, in the Charlotte region. When you arrive, you'll find a bunch of pirate ships also laying claim to the treasure, who you'll have to sink before landing the Jackdaw.

Finding the treasure is relatively straightforward. From where you land, hop across the boats to your left and dive down, looking for the sunken mineshaft. You'll have to navigate these tunnels, dodging sharks and sea anemones until you reach an area with wooden platforms, gunpowder barrels, and a bunch of enemies. Pick up one of the kegs and take it over to the far side of the room where the rubble is (this will glow green when you hold LT on controller).

Place the barrel down and shoot it to blow up the rubble. Continue on until you reach the cave where you have to confront Blackbeard's former sailing master, and then grab another gunpowder barrel and carry it up the path to the right of the waterfall, where you'll find a second pile of rubble to destroy.

Inside, you'll find the treasure, though you'll have to head back to Great Inagua afterwards to actually complete the quest. As a reward, you'll get Blackbeard's portrait, which you can hang in the loot cave area of the manor.

The Elite Ship Upgrades from the original game have been renamed in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. Now called Ultimate Ship Plans, these schematics still serve the same purpose: fully upgrading the Jackdaw. So you'll want to find each and every one of the locations if you're hoping to take on the legendary ships.

All Black Flag Resynced Ultimate Ship Plan locations

There are 12 Ultimate Ship Plans for you to find, locked behind either dives or treasure maps. You'll need to complete the first Sequence 6 main mission, Diving for Medicine, before you can start hunting for the plan locations in earnest, since this unlocks the diving bell, and most of the plans are located underwater.

Once you've found the plan, you then need to head to any shipmaster to purchase the upgrades for your ship—they're not free, unfortunately, costing both Reales and materials.

Here's where to find all 12 Ultimate Ship Plans in the remake:

Finding all the Mayan stone locations is one of your big distractions while sailing the Caribbean in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and it's mostly unchanged from the original game. You still need to solve 16 of these stele to complete the Mayan Mystery task and unlock the Mayan Armour, one of the best outfits. But just like the treasure maps, a few locations have shifted around in the remake.

All Black Flag Resynced Mayan stone locations

While you might have stumbled upon some of these Mayan sculptures beforehand, you need to complete This Old Cove during the main story to be able to interact with the stele. James Kidd will explain how they work but, basically, you just need to climb to the top of the sculpture, interact with it, rotate the pattern until it aligns with the glowing objects, then grab the Mayan stone.

You need to collect 16 Mayan stones from the stele across the map in order to open the door guarding the Mayan Armour in Tulum, which you'll have access to after completing the main missions Nothing is True and Overrun And Outnumbered. This unique outfit now comes with a charm that houses its old perk of deflecting projectiles. That means you can gain the benefits of the armour without necessarily wearing the silly costume.

You'll find them on the following islands:

• Great Inagua, Gibara
• Cat Island, Eleuthera
• Cape Bonavista, Dry Tortuga
• Misteriosa, Serranilla
• Santanillas, Chinchorro
• Matanzas, Dry Tortuga
• Sacrifice Island, Conttoyor
• Tulum, Conttoyor
• Tortuga, Punta Guarico
• Pinos Isle, Castillo de Jagua
• New Bone, Serranilla
• Long Bay, Charlotte
• Isla Providencia, Serranilla

Here's exactly where to find all 16 Mayan stones via their coordinates and how to solve them in the remake:

1. Great Inagua, Gibara

You complete this one during the main story mission This Old Cove, so you can't miss it. It's a simple one to start you off, but just in case, rotate the overlay so that the squares line up with the square pillars on the left and top right.

2. Cat Island, Eleuthera (703,670)

On the northern beach, just a short distance from the warehouse that you'll have raided earlier in the main story. Flip the overlay so the large circle covers the rubble on the left and the oval is around the narrow rock.

3. Cape Bonavista, Dry Tortuga (159,583)

To reach it, head up into the mountains from the northernmost synchronisation point. Rotate and shrink the overlay so that the largest circle surrounds the bottom pillar, while the two smaller circles are around the top two posts.

4. Matanzas, Dry Tortuga (311,617)

This one's in the hills in the far southeast of the island, past the warehouse. Rotate it left so that the large circle near the cross on the overlap lines up with the tree, and the two medium-sized circles match the rocks on the far right side.

5. Misteriosa, Serranilla (265,171)

The first Mayan stele on this island is on the western beach, with Spanish soldiers on the walls above it. All you need to do is rotate it left so the two circles cover the posts at the bottom, and the arches line up with the broken arches on the wall.

6. Misteriosa, Serranilla (272,175)

The second sculpture on this island is on the ramparts leading up to the synchronisation point in the northeast, next to a treasure map. Rotate it left so that the largest circle lines up with the biggest rock on the left, next to the boat.

7. New Bone, Serranilla (400,92)

This stele is in the northwest of the island, conveniently where the warehouse guard and his muse will be talking. It's one of the easiest to solve: flip the overlay so that the four rectangles cover the rocks at the bottom.

8. Santanillas, Chinchorro (187,221)

There's only one Mayan stone on this island, but there were two in the original game, located in the ruins near the centre of the occupied island. Flip it so the thicker, parallel lines connecting two of the circles are around the two pillars at the top.

9. Sacrifice Island, Conttoyor (18,548)

Next to the synchronisation point in the centre of the island. All you have to do is flip the overlay so that the thicker, parallel lines of the triangle join up the two rocks at the bottom.

10. Tulum, Conttoyor (30,382)

This one's on the west side of the island, not far from where you finish the Overrun and Outnumbered mission (which immediately follows Nothing is True). To solve the puzzle, flip it almost fully so that the two circles on the same line match up with the top and right pillars.

11. Tortuga, Punta Guarico (846,352)

Just up the hill from the plantation's northern beach, you'll find another Mayan stele, not far from the island's synchronisation point. Solving it is as simple as flipping the overlay so that the smallest circle is on the rock at the bottom, and the line shoots off towards the ocean.

12. Pinos Isle, Castillo de Jagua (303,452)

There are two Mayan stones up for grabs on this island, the first of which is just a short walk south of the synchronisation point in the northwest. Rotate the grid left to match the rectangle with the collapsed pillar at the top.

13. Pinos Isle, Castillo de Jagua (312,454)

The second stele on Pinos Isle is east of the synchronisation point, on the hill overlooking the shipwreck on the shore. And solving it is very simple: flip it so the rectangle aligns with the wall at the top.

14. Long Bay, Charlotte (502,216)

You need to progress the main story until you gain access to Long Bay and reach the Observatory. Once there, the stele is to the left of the main entrance to the Observatory.

15. Isla Providencia, Serranilla (487,33)

You also need to progress the main story to unlock Isla Providencia, which houses the final two Mayan stones. The first stele on the island is in the northernmost temple ruin area close to the beach where the Jackdaw fast travels to.

16. Isla Providencia, Serranilla (476,16)

The second stele on Isla Providencia is just to the right of the synchronisation viewpoint in the southernmost temple.

As mentioned, once you've gathered all 16 Mayan stones, return to the locked door back on Tulum, Conttoyor, near the beach in the northeast. You'll be greeted by a short climbing section in the temple before grabbing the Mayan Armour. You'll also get the Yax Tun pendant, which absorbs all gunshots without you having to wear the (frankly, kinda ugly) Mayan fit like you had to in the original game.

Legendary ships were the pinnacle challenge of the Caribbean in the original, and they return even stronger in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced. These boss battles now have more unique gimmicks and phases, and pack a serious punch. But you've got a lot more tools of destruction to deal with them, the rewards have changed, and they now respawn so you can fight them again.

Black Flag Resynced legendary ships explained

Just like in the original, there are four legendary ships, located in each of the corners of the map. They'll be revealed once you destroy the fortresses in their respective regions:

• El Impoluto (Dry Tortuga)
• HMS Fearless & Royal Sovereign (Eleuthera)
• La Dama Negra (Serranilla)
• HMS Prince (Nevassa)

These are extremely tough battles that will require an almost, if not fully, upgraded Jackdaw to take on. I recommend at least having the best armour, broadside cannons, swivel cannons, and ram—check out the Ultimate Ship Plans, some of which are hidden behind treasure maps.

In fact, the legendary ships are even harder in Resynced compared to the original game, having more health and dealing more damage, as well as having clearer phases as you whittle their health down. Your biggest advantage, though are the three new naval officers, who you should recruit before going after the legendary ships:

1. Padre, recruited through the A Second Chance quest after Sequence 4: This Old Cove, lets you charge ram for bonus speed and damage.
2. Lucy Baldwin, unlocked in A Proper Shipwright after Sequence 4: This Old Cove, allows you to brace at the last second to almost nullify damage taken.
3. Tobias 'Deadman' Smith, unlocked in No Box Dark Enough after Sequence 11: Everything is Permitted and A World Without Gold, lets you maximise broadside cannon damage and completing his quest also gets you a powerful multi-shot mortar variant.

The major difference in the Resynced remake is the reward. You'll notice that the old Ram Dash upgrade you got for beating all four legendary ships is now unlocked by recruiting Padre. Given that these are endgame challenges, you can now get and use Ram Dash much earlier—it's been buffed, too. In its place, legendary ships now reward you with ship cosmetics for the Jackdaw's figurehead, hull, wheel, and sails.

Legendary ships are also repeatable now—they'll respawn after a period of time if you fancy a rematch.

Here are all four legendary ships and how to beat them:

El Impoluto

• Location: Dry Tortuga (161,804)

Despite stalking the seas of the starting region, I'd argue El Impoluto is the second-hardest legendary ship. It's incredibly tanky and deals obscene amounts of damage from its lengthy cannon barrages, which make it hard to perfectly brace and nullify the hits. Plus, while it favours close-range ramming, it's got very long-range cannons, so you can't just sail away from it.

Here are some tips for the fight:

Once you beat El Impoluto, you'll earn the following rewards:

• 12,000 Reales
• El Impoluto sails
• El Impoluto wheel
• El Impoluto hull
• El Impoluto figurehead
• El Impoluto ship model

HMS Fearless & Royal Sovereign

• Location: Eleuthera (811,858)

The HMS Fearless & Royal Sovereign legendary ship battle is unique in that it's actually a two-on-one. Rather unfair, if you ask me, and it's the one I had the most trouble with. Since you'll have to contend with two ships at once, they have reduced health compared to the other legendary ships. And once you destroy one of the pair, the other will set itself ablaze and chase you down.

Here are some tips:

Once you beat this legendary ship battle, you'll earn the following rewards:

• 12,000 Reales
• HMS Fearless sails
• HMS Fearless wheel
• HMS Fearless hull
• HMS Fearless figurehead
• Brothers in Arms ship model

La Dama Negra

• Location: Serranilla (241,73)

La Dama Negra is armed to the teeth and, in fact, the only ship with armour, too. Metal plates of the hull reduce damage you deal to the sides of the ship and prevent swivel gun critical hits. Your positioning is very important here.

Here are my tips:

Once you beat the ghost ship, you'll earn the following rewards:

• 12,000 Reales
• La Dama Negra sails
• La Dama Negra wheel
• La Dama Negra hull
• La Dama Negra figurehead
• La Dama Negra ship model

HMS Prince

• Location: Navassa (854,55)

Described as the ghost ship, HMS Prince is arguably the easiest of the legendary ships to fight, though it certainly drags on once you reach its second phase and it starts hiding in the fog.

Here are some tips to take it out:

Once you beat the ghost ship, you'll earn the following rewards:

• 12,000 Reales
• HMS Prince sails
• HMS Prince wheel
• HMS Prince hull
• HMS Prince figurehead
• HMS Prince ship model

Just like the original game, getting all the outfits isn't simple in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, but for a slightly different reason. Most outfits are still bought from the merchants or crafted, but a few have moved locations for no apparent reason.

Everyone's favourite Crimson Cloak, for example, is no longer available from the General Store. Likewise, loyalty outfits like Ezio's robes are now behind quests. The remake also borrows a few tricks from Shadows to further complicate your wardrobe collection.

How to get all Black Flag Resynced outfits

There are 33 outfits in Resynced, or 35 if you're counting the exclusive pre-order and Deluxe Edition bundles, and more if you want to include the premium shop skins you can buy. You'll get at least two outfits by default a short way into the story. You start with Duncan Walpole's Robes for your trip to Havana, and when you leave, Cap'n Kenway will modify them, unlocking Edward Kenway's Robes. Unlike the original game, you can swap back to Duncan's Assassin robes if you'd rather they not be replaced.

If you've pre-ordered the game, you'll be able to equip Blackbeard's Crimson Outfit, and those with the Master Assassin pack (included in the Deluxe Edition) will also have the black and gold robes of the same name.

If you've played the original game, you'll notice a few odd absences, despite Ubisoft stating that every legacy outfit would return. For example, we didn't find the Explorer outfit, nor Ezio's and Altair's robes. I suspect the latter two will be available in the Exchange store in the future, however, similar to Connor's outfit.

Here's every other outfit you need to unlock in Black Flag Resynced:

Brown Cloak

The first outfit you can get is the Brown Cloak from the large chest in the Governor's compound in the southeast of Havana, Dry Tortuga, at the following coordinates: 204,573. You can grab this while you're sneaking around during the main mission, or return later.

Pirate Cloak

Purchase it for 600 Reales from the General Store after completing the main mission This Old Cove to liberate Great Inagua, Gibara. It's basically the Brown Cloak but with a cool skull on the back.

Captain Drake's Outfit

Loot the chest in the ocean off the northeast coast of Sacrifice Island, Conttoyor, at the following coordinates: 18,547. It will be marked when you use the nearby sync point.

Merchant Outfit

Purchase it for 3000 Reales from the General Store after completing the Sequence 4 main mission Overrun and Outnumbered.

Politician's Outfit

Purchase it for 3,000 Reales from the General Store after completing the Sequence 4 main mission Overrun and Outnumbered.

Privateer Outfit

Purchase it for 3,000 Reales from the General Store after completing the Sequence 4 main mission Overrun and Outnumbered.

Feline Pelt Outfit

Build the Treasure Dealer at Great Inagua, Gibara, after completing the Sequence 4 main mission This Old Cove, and trade the following items:

• 2x Ocelot Pelt
• 6x Jaguar Pelt
• 1x White Jaguar Pelt
• 2x Black Jaguar Pelt

Whaler Outfit

Build the Treasure Dealer at Great Inagua, Gibara, after completing the Sequence 4 main mission This Old Cove, and trade the following items:

• 2x Humpback Whale Skin
• 2x Killer Whale Skin

Shark-Hunter Outfit

Build the Treasure Dealer at Great Inagua, Gibara, after completing the Sequence 4 main mission This Old Cove, and trade the following items:

• 1x Great White Shark Bone
• 2x Bull Shark Skin
• 2x Hammerhead Shark Bone

Stede Bonnet's Attire

Masquerade as the one and only merchant (or gentleman pirate) Stede Bonnet by looting the largest chest on the east hill of Mystery Island in the far east of Navassa, at the following coordinates: 913,123.

Captain Morgan's Redingote

Part of The Black Island DLC pack in the original game, this content is included in the remake. You need to loot the large chest overlooking the shore in the hills north of Black Island, northeast Gibara, at the following coordinates: 915,618.

Pirate Captain Outfit

Complete the Ambergris Key treasure map. You can find the map next to the campfire on the northeastern beach of Corozal, western Chinchorro (31,230). Then head to Ambergris Key, southern Chinchorro (30,157) to collect the chest.

Crimson Cloak

Complete the Anotto Bay treasure map. You can get the map by looting the warehouse in the northwest of Havana (205,600), then sail to Anotto Bay, northeast Charlotte (590,245) to collect the chest. This outfit was available immediately from the General Store in the original game.

Governor Outfit

Complete the Isla Providencia treasure map. Grab the map from the warehouse in the south of Nassau (594,750). You then need to progress the main story until you gain access to Isla Providencia, where you'll find the buried treasure near boat wrecks on the southern beach (487,11).

Shade and Shadow Robes

Complete the Sacrifice Island (Preserved) buried treasure map. You'll need to restore this map at the Treasure Dealer in Great Inagua by raiding warehouses multiple times until you get four Preserved Map Pieces. Then follow the map to the northwest beach at Sacrifice Island, Conttoyor (14,554). You'll also get the Wooden Eyeball legendary trinket, which makes it so that quick shooting instantly kills brutes.

Hunter Outfit

Complete the Santanillas (Digested) buried treasure map. To restore this map at the Treasure Dealer in Great Inagua, you need to kill and skin the white jaguar at Great Inagua twice to get two Digested Map Pieces. Then use the map to find the treasure underneath the Mayan ruin to the south of Santanillas, Chinchorro (188,215). You'll also receive the Hunter's Amulet rare trinket, which reduces the detection range of animals. It's pretty terrible, sorry.

Haytham Kenway's Overcoat

Find all 11 portrait collectables (the final few require completing Sequence 12: A Governor No Longer) and hang them in the manor at Great Inagua to receive Haytham Kenway's Overcoat and a secret treasure map. This map leads to The Fortune legendary weapon.

Officer's Outfit

You can find the classic Officer's Outfit in the chest at the docks on Principe Island once you've unlocked it through the story, at the following coordinates: 116,11.

Explorer Outfit

The Explorer Outfit isn't missing after all, just extremely well-hidden—likely part of a community treasure hunt that's been uncovered early. It's in an unmarked chest under the ocean north of Corozal in Chinchorro, at the following coordinates: 28,293.

Sail here, past the rock jutting out of the water, and dive down to find a rocky mound covered in coral where you'll see the chest. You'll also get the Aveline Figurehead for your ship.

Stealth Outfit

Just like the original game, you need to complete 16, just over half, of the Assassin Contracts. You'll get the Stealth Outfit, plus the Hidden Ones Sigil legendary trinket. Completing every contract will net you the legendary Spring-Steel Swords.

Foreign Diplomat Disguise

You'll get this fancy red overcoat as a disguise during the Sequence 12 main mission Governor No Longer and keep it afterwards.

Mayan Armour

Find all 16 Mayan stones to recover the stones required to complete the Mayan Mysteries side quest and open the locked door on Tulum.

Templar Armour

After completing Sequence 3: A Single Madman and taking Julien du Casse's Templar Key, complete the four Templar Hunts and use the keys from each to open the gate in the manor in Great Inagua, Gibara.

Master Assassin Outfit

To get Edward's Master Assassin robes, you need to complete the Art Lover quest by collecting art, such as paintings from raiding warehouses, ship models from boarding enemy vessels, and sculptures from chests or merchants.

Edward the Legend

Fully restore and upgrade every building at your base, including the manor, in Great Inagua, Gibara, unlocked after beating This Old Cove. You'll need heaps of resources and Reales, so don't expect to do this quickly.

Naoe's Robes

Reach level 12 in the Riptides Animus Project to get Naoe's outfit from Shadows. This is a free battle pass progressed by earning and spending Data Fragments. These contain items available in both Black Flag Resynced and Shadows.

Yasuke's Yoroi

Reach level 12 in the Undertow Animus Project to get Yasuke's outfit from Shadows. This is a free battle pass progressed by earning and spending Data Fragments. These contain items available in both Black Flag Resynced and Shadows.

Dark Animus Corsair Robes

Reach level 18 in the Eye in the Dark Animus Project, a free battle pass progressed by completing Anomaly challenges. Unlike the other Projects, all the rewards here are exclusive to Black Flag Resynced.

Connor's Outfit

To get Connor's cool robes from Assassin's Creed 3, you need to purchase them for 3,000 Keys from the Animus Exchange store. This is effectively the replacement for Uplay challenges which used to be the home of legacy Assassin outfits.

Nomad's Bronze Ensemble

You can get the Nomad's Bronze Ensemble for free at the bottom of the in-game store. You should also grab the Rustic Flintlocks and Shipmate Monkey while you're here.

I'm not sure who asked for daily quests and what is essentially a battle pass in Black Flag Resynced, but here we are. Similar to Shadows, you can earn Data Fragments to spend on unlocking special cosmetics and keys in your Animus projects.

First off, make sure that you have the Eyes in the Dark project active, as this one gives you rewards in Black Flag itself versus AC Shadows. Otherwise, here's how to earn Data Fragments so you can spend them on new cosmetics and keys, which you can use to unlock further items in the exchange.

How to get Data Fragments in Black Flag Resynced

The main way you get Data Fragments is by completing anomalies located around the Caribbean. These activities first unlocked for me after I completed Sequence 4: This Old Cove, where you take over Great Inagua. If you open your map and press tab (X on controller) to open your quest log, you can cycle down to anomalies and look at all the different ones available.

The range of activities depends on which project you have active in the Animus, but generally they are quite straightforward, and either involve sinking corrupted ships and convoys, or completing short puzzle sections, such as the rifts. Once done, you'll earn the amount of Data Fragments listed, which you can then spend to unlock rewards on your active project track.

These rewards include cosmetics, weapons, but also keys, which you can spend in the exchange to purchase items themed around other Assassins Creed games, too. You'll get new anomalies to complete based on the timer above each one. So, if you complete one, you'll have to wait a while for another to replace it.

Completing the Art Lover quest in Black Flag Resynced sees you finding art pieces from Great Inagua's scattered collection to return them to the manor. This is one of the new quests that was added in Resynced, alongside a new character, Bernard. This aged butler served the previous owner of the house before Du Casse took it over.

There are lots of different ways to gather the Great Inagua art collection and the reward is one of Ezio's outfits, so I'll run through the easiest ways to gather what you need.

Black Flag Resynced art collection locations

To complete the Art Lover quest, you'll need to find 30 art pieces across the Caribbean, though you'll have to return to talk to Bernard once you've found 15 and then 25, before completing the quest at 30, earning yourself the Master Assassin outfit (One of Ezio's outfits) and the Obsidian Hull ornament.

There are many ways to gather art, but it's worth noting the Templar and pirate portraits you hang in the manor don't count towards this quest. Here's how to gather the art collection:

1. Collecting ship models

Every time you board a ship for the first time after defeating it, you'll earn its model, and these models count as part of the Inagua art collection since you can display them on a shelf in the main room. Since there's a British and Spanish variant for each ship type, that's ten art pieces you can easily earn, not to mention that you'll unlock extra ship models as you complete the main story.

2. Buying art pieces

You can buy six art pieces from any General Store, though since these cost Reales, you might want to hold onto your money and leave these as a last resort. It depends how quickly you want to complete the quest and get Ezio's Revelations outfit.

3. Looting plantation warehouses

The first time you loot a plantation warehouse, you'll get a painting you can hang in the manor, which counts towards the Great Inagua art collection. Plantations are easy to find; simply look for the island symbols that have three plants growing out of some soil. You'll have to head inside, find the key, and unlock the warehouse door. These can also contain treasure maps.

4. Kenway's fleet missions

Some of Kenway's fleet missions (the ones you organise via the map in the manor or Jackdaw's cabin) provide art pieces as rewards, specifically, the Piracy and Trade missions. They also have a scale and skull symbol on the map and list their type below their title.

You'll need a brig for Piracy and a schooner for Trade. Simply look for the missions that have a little furniture or art piece image in their listed rewards—they're usually pretty easy to recognise as, besides map pieces, they're the only rewards that have "1x" next to them.

5. Treasure maps

While not all do, some buried treasure maps contain art pieces as their rewards. Specifically:

• New Bone treasure map (722,607)
• Abaco Island treasure map (543,694)
• Jiquey treasure map (812,114)
• Principe treasure map (605,132)

That last one is locked by the main story until you go to the island of Principe, since it's not on the main map. If you're struggling with any of these, check out our treasure map guide linked above.

With all of these, you should easily be able to cobble together the 30 pieces you need, just make sure to return to Bernard when the quest marker reappears in Great Inagua. If you want to know your progress, open the world map, press X to open the quest list via the prompt in the top right, and cycle through sidequests to find and toggle it active.

Though it makes a variety of changes to the original, Black Flag Resynced adds quite a lot of new content to the much-beloved Assassin's Creed instalment. There's a boatload of new sidequests, including a whole new chapter you unlock later in the game. There are also tweaks to combat, stealth, the Jackdaw, and legendary ships.

The point of this guide is to walk you through the new content as you play, so you know what unlocks when, and don't miss anything along the way.

How to access all new content in Black Flag Resynced

Before I run through how to access all of the new stuff in order (so you can use this guide while playing), there are a few more general changes to the game.

First off, combat and stealth:

• A new blunderbuss-wielding enemy
• The ability to crouch anywhere by pressing X and a visibility meter
• You can perform Heavy Strikes by holding the attack button
• There are now Trinkets you can equip with unique buffs. For example, finding all Mayan Stones now also gives you a Trinket that absorbs gunfire as well are the Mayan Armor it used to
• You can't pick up enemy weapons anymore
• No more hidden blade combat beyond finishers
• No more fail conditions for stealth missions if you are found

And in terms of the Jackdaw and ship combat:

• Three new officer quests that provide upgrades, such as firing double broadsides, enhanced brace, and the ram ability you used to get by defeating all legendary ships
• New secondary firing modes for ship weapons, including:
  • Continuous Heated Shots for broadside cannons
  • Double shot for the bowchasers
  • Shrapnel barrels for the barrels
  • Deadman's Cohort for the mortar (unlocked via his officer quest)
  • Swivel guns can now be manually aimed AC Rogue-style
• Legendary ships are tougher and respawn over time
• New sea shanties, some of which you unlock via sidequests (like Captain Stede Bonnet)

The way you get many of Black Flag's outfits has also changed, the Jackdaw's Ship Plans are now called Ultimate Plans, and the Treasure Maps have changed somewhat, too. All that said, here's everything new in order of when it unlocks during the game.

1. Rope Dart (Sequence 3: Sugarcane and Its Yields)

This is Black Flag's new combat tool, a rope dart you can hang enemies with, or throw at them to pull them towards you, though it has a cooldown.

2. A bunch of quests, Rifts, and two new pets (Sequence 4: This Old Cove)

This is the first major set of unlocks once you take the cove at Great Inagua. This includes:

• Art Lover quest: You'll meet the butler, Bernard, during This Old Cove, and he tasks you with collecting art pieces to restore the manor's lost collection.
• Two new officer quests: A Second Chance and A Proper Shipwright will appear to the southeast and west respectively. These quests see you recruit two officers to the Jackdaw who provide special abilities and a nice pair of pistols if you complete their questlines fully.
• Rifts and Animus Projects: Rifts are new narrative activities that explore Edward Kenway's choices. The first one appeared for me on the south coast of Great Inagua after I finished This Old Cove. From this point on you can also earn Data Fragments for Animus Projects, unlocking cosmetics and gear. As you progress the story, you'll unlock more Rifts, so keep an eye out.
• Two new pets: The first new pet is Soot the Cat in the town of Great Inagua, marked by the Cat Distribution System local event. The second is Albert the Monkey, who you can find at the Monkey Business local event marker in southeast Havana, off the shore on a ship. Your equipped pet in your loadout will sit on the railing as you sail.

3. Blackbeard's Treasure sidequest (Sequence 8: Do Not Go Gently)

This sidequest unlocks after Do Not Go Gently in Sequence 8 and sees you tracking down Blackbeard's treasure via a special map. This quest automatically starts through the main story, so you don't need to worry about activating it yourself. This acts as an epilogue for Ed Thatch's character.

4. Captain Stede Bonnet sidequest (Sequence 8: Marooned)

Once you complete Marooned, you'll find the Captain Stede Bonnet sidequest marker in the manor in Great Inagua. As with Blackbeard's Treasure, this quest is about the merchant-turned-pirate, Stede Bonnet, who you encounter throughout the game.

5. A World Without Gold chapter and one more officer quest (Sequence 11: Everything is Permitted)

Though this is a very late unlock, it's actually most significant for my money, adding an entirely new chapter to the game. Once you complete Everything is Permitted, you'll find the That Bastard Maynard quest marker by the tavern in Great Inagua, after you leave the Assassin's Compound with Anne. As you might have guessed, this quest is about Maynard, the pirate-hunter you briefly met in the original game.

You'll unlock the officer, Tobias Smith, via this questline when you complete I Just Want to Talk as well as his upgrade. His quest then continues separately to A World Without Gold. If you then complete No Box Dark Enough (which you'll find in Great Inagua) and then his subsequent quests, you'll unlock a new mortar type for the Jackdaw which fires a continuous stream. This is the final major new unlock in Black Flag Resynced.

Black Flag Resynced, the much-anticipated remake of the classic pirate-themed Assassin's Creed installment, is set to release shortly, letting us revisit Edward Kenway, kill a million British soldiers, and sink a navy's worth of ships. It's all in the name of plunder, though.

The remake is visually quite impressive, but there's also a bunch of new content, such as quests, pets, improved ship battles, and all sorts. Below, I'll run through when you can play, but also explain about preloading so you can hop right in on launch.

Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced release times for each region

Black Flag Resynced releases on July 9 with the exception of just a few regions. The console release times are slightly different, since it comes out midnight local time on those platforms, but as for PC, here's when you can play the game:

• West Coast US: 7 am PDT
• East Coast US: 10 am EDT
• UK: 3 pm BST
• Europe: 4 pm CEST
• Australia: 12 am AEST (July 10)
• New Zealand: 2 pm NZDT (July 10)

For any other regions, the image above lists most locations. You can find Black Flag Resynced's technical requirements on the Steam page.

Does Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced have a preload?

Yes, Black Flag Resynced does have a preload option available and it's active right now, having started on July 7, meaning you can download it in advance on both PC and console. A good thing, too, since the game is reasonably large, requiring 65 GB available space.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced might go down as one of the more puzzling remakes ever conceived. Not only is it bizarre that Ubisoft decided to kick off a likely streak of remakes with the sixth game of the series, but it also chose a game so recently and universally enjoyed that the only way to "remake" it is to simply put out the same game again.

A cleaned-up remaster might have been better than what Ubisoft has done here. Resynced is tirelessly faithful to the qualities that set Black Flag apart in this series—sailing the Jackdaw is as great as ever, now distinguished by a newer Anvil engine that enables dynamic weather, time-of-day, and a truly seamless open world—but fundamental changes to combat, stealth, and encounter design reveal that this is essentially Black Flag stuffed inside Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Resynced is good. It's slick, ridiculously beautiful, and improves on the original Black Flag in several ways. I'm impressed by Ubisoft's Singapore's obvious love for the source material—every story beat and cutscene has been recreated shot-for-shot with original performances intact. If you've never played the second-best Assassin's Creed game ever made, Resynced will get the job done.

For a while, I even believed it would outshine the original Black Flag—I was wooed by Resynced's breathtaking Caribbean vistas that stretched further than my PS3 could be asked, taken by its swashbuckling ship-to-ship showdowns, and impressed by the return of "advanced parkour" mechanics like back and side ejects. Ubisoft spent a generation transforming Assassin's Creed from a stealth-action power fantasy into a loot-driven RPG with spammy combat, and only now is it trying to make amends. Resynced feels like Ubisoft teaching itself how to make a proper Assassin's Creed again, and graded on that curve, it's quite good.

But then, after rolling credits, I reinstalled that original game. Even though I was retreading missions that I'd literally just played newer versions of, I had so much more fun in Black Flag 2013 that I just kept playing… and playing, and playing, until I'd completed both games front-to-back in the same week.

This turned out to be a useful exercise (I told my fiancé, puzzled by a second round of sea shanties emanating from my Steam Deck), because it took a return to old Assassin's Creed to properly appreciate mechanics, design choices, and an entire storyline that, according to internet consensus and Ubisoft, weren't worth preserving. Now having braved Black Flag's dreaded tailing missions, indulged in Ezio-era chain killing, and hacked the computers of my Abstergo coworkers, I reckon this 13-year-old game has aged quite gracefully.

I'm glad Resynced is here, but honestly? The original is better.

Jumper

Take parkour and climbing. Ubisoft is making a big deal about Resynced's parkour being a step up from Shadows, Mirage, and Valhalla, and while that's true, that's setting the bar on the floor. Compared to the original, Edward's updated movement is stilted and floaty. Classic maneuvers are there, but they don't flow very well, resulting in freerunning that looks like bespoke animations playing on a timeline rather than a fluid sequence. Whatever black magic Ubi used to hide these animation seams in the 2010s was lost in the remake process.

Perhaps Ubi is satisfied with less convincing parkour as long as it's faster. Resynced's locomotion is designed as if Black Flag's meticulous animations were a nuisance. Remake Edward wallruns straight up single-story buildings like he's Spider-Man, then proceeds to expedite larger climbs through silly-looking vertical leaps that have more in common with Sly Cooper than Ezio Auditore. When I should be punished for chancing an unwise jump, Edward suddenly gains springs in his boots to clear the gap.

For as much guff as the old AC games get for finicky climbing, Black Flag represented six games of refinements—steering Edward over rooftops, through branches, and across highwires in 2026 is still expressive, and less prone to accidents than the first few games. Climbs are smooth, but weighty and methodical. It takes some time and a little brainpower to crest a church tower or fort. In my unscientific test using the same building in 2013 vs 2026, remake Edward flew up this church twice as fast:

I find the part where original Edward carefully climbs around a window overhang, followed by remake Edward phasing straight through it, to be illustrative.

Resynced is functional and quick, but it's not cool or (dare I say) immersive. And man, that used to be a core appeal of this series. Neither system is complex, but the old climbing at least feels intentional—like we're meant to experience the effort and time it takes to scale a structure that was never meant to be climbed.

That pace has a grounding effect that extends beyond walls. Remake Edward no longer runs with any simulated momentum, meaning he can instantly change direction or flip a u-turn like he's a Dark Souls protagonist. It's a very artificial, videogame-y feel that I ended up resenting the more I played the weightier original.

Blade dance

Even when Resynced's systems are objectively better, Ubi has failed to respect the rule of cool. Black Flag's reimagined combat carries over Shadows' dodge/parry and light/heavy attacks, with the addition of Edward's signature chain kills. It's more engaging than the original's simplistic "counter and instakill everybody" approach, but confusingly, the remake actually reduces Edward's combat options by a lot.

Hidden blades are no longer a primary weapon, now relegated to finisher animations. You can't steal enemy muskets, sabers or heavy axes—temporary pickups that carried their own advantages, drawbacks, and cool finisher animations in the original.

No, remake Edward is strictly a cutlass man, except now he can kick enemies. I don't think the tradeoff was worth it, because Black Flag was never lacking challenging combat. I remember liking Edward as a terrifying pirate terminator soloing the crews of rival brigs, and that impression was backed up by my replay. It's not cerebral stuff, but the weapon pickups gave me more ways to play with my food, and fluid chainkills are gratifying for the same reasons the Batman Arkham games still kick ass.

With respect to some new, freshly gruesome Edward finishers, the remake combat is too mushy and spammy to accomplish the same fantasy. Old AC is about messing dudes up and looking awesome doing it, but new AC is about cleaving away at a health bar.

This is especially true in Resynced's occasional forced boss fights, which replace moments where you're meant to stealthily assassinate targets. You know, like assassins do.

The chase

At least Resynced wins in the sneaking department. The arrival of Shadows' crouch button instantly elevates both the complexity and fantasy of stalking targets from rooftops. The majority of Black Flag's missions involve infiltration and neck-stabbing, so this is a significant upgrade. I felt empowered to explore compounds and avoid guards more often than I killed them, which I attribute to a gracious window between guards seeing Edward and actually pursuing him. Stealth within compounds was the highlight of Shadows, so this is no surprise, but I'm disappointed that Ubi has also repeated that game's mistakes with the cities surrounding those compounds.

The remakes of Kingston, Havana, and Nassau are faithful and, in some cases, even expanded, but Ubi has rendered them less dynamic by nerfing the British and Spanish troops that patrol them. Rooftop guards are completely absent in neutral areas, which kills all the tension of freerunning from A to B. If you do manage to piss off guards, they won't even try to chase you outside of their immediate station. Caught trying to steal booty in a restricted zone? Just run outside and they'll forget you exist.

Ubi has lost the art of the chase, and it sucks. Chases were once a fun, unique feature of Assassin's Creed that forced you to take paths that guards could not easily follow, break line-of-sight to avoid gunshots, and keep your cool long enough to lose a tail in a haystack, bench, or closet. Ubi had already started to deemphasize notoriety systems by the time Black Flag came around—guards will quickly forget about Edward once he loses them, and you don't have to tear down posters of your face—but chases themselves persisted. Resynced lovingly recreated all of those benches, wells, and closets, then gave me exactly zero reasons to use them.

It's one of many ways that Resynced subtly changes the original Black Flag in the name of "quality of life," but ends up blander for it. The series' infamous tailing missions are now much easier. Thanks to no rooftop guards, you can just follow from above with zero worries, and if you do get spotted, just skip to the end of the mission by killing your target and looting the relevant info instead. I know these missions were unpopular with the impatient, but the occasional round of enforced stealth gave AC's repetitive infiltrations some variety while utilizing city space that was otherwise just there.

They also reinforced that, occasionally, stealth is the entire point. These games aren't as fun when every problem can be solved by a hidden blade.

Ship combat has been grazed by the easy beam, too. The Jackdaw is significantly more maneuverable in the remake, a small but consequential player buff that makes follow-up cannon volleys easier while in motion. I also noticed that enemy ships were generally less aggressive on normal difficulty—when I returned to 2013 Black Flag after 25 hours with the remake, I got my ass handed to me by a level one pirate hunter.

The Abstergo of it all

And, oh yeah, Resynced also surgically removes a huge chunk of Black Flag's story. The entire conceit of the original game is that you're an Abstergo Entertainment employee rummaging through Desmond's DNA so that a fictional Ubisoft can turn Edward's memories into a videogame while the Templars covertly seek the precursor technology at the heart of the story. Those sequences are just totally gone, replaced by an Animus interface only used for battle pass unlocks. What a downgrade.

I'm surprised that the removal of all Abstergo business was universally cheered upon announcement. The present day stuff was never my favorite part of these games, but I've always considered Black Flag's a net positive. The interludes were short, semi-optional, and rewarded fans with a mountain of worldbuilding through emails, voice logs, and hidden videos. My recent playthrough reminded me that the ending of these episodes is pretty terrible, but so reveals a lost opportunity. Ubisoft could have directed resources at making this integral part of the original game better, but they just deleted it and replaced it with nothing at all.

It's revisionist history that nobody liked this part of the game—I did, for one, and plenty of reviewers did too. Are we meant to take this as Ubi retconning this series as nothing more than historical action games? Assassin's Creed is a sci-fi world, damn it!

Back-to-back

50 hours across two back-to-back Black Flag playthroughs left me with a lot to chew on. It's a testament to Black Flag's triumphant sailing that it was fun enough to do twice with minimal changes. Time has not been as kind to Edward Kenway, who I'm now convinced is a dull character with an unearned hero arc I was not smart enough to see through at 17 years old.

But the long gap between playthroughs was also long enough to miss a version of these games that was getting a bit tiresome by 2013. There's a comfort to the original's plodding pace, myriad collectibles, and simplistic swordplay that actually stands out more in 2026 than Resynced's "break yet another posture meter" combat and entirely optional stealth.

Resynced's advantages are plain to see. Its world is one of the most gorgeous and realistic depictions of nature ever put to videogame, and its simplifications will likely prove broadly appealing. This is also the better PC port, offering loads of graphical options and features with relatively chill system requirements. It's even Steam Deck verified at launch, though if it's roughly as performant as Shadows, expect a jittery 30 fps target. The original, on the other hand, is finicky in ways that many early 2010s console games were on PC. There's no borderless fullscreen, it doesn't like being alt-tabbed, and will hang for 20 seconds on startup trying to load ancient Uplay stuff unless you cancel it each time. It's also locked at 60 fps by default, but there's a mod for that.

Photoreal graphics are nice (especially on my RTX 5090/9800X3D machine), but man, have you seen the old Black Flag lately? The faces are rough, but that world is still a looker. It's a bit more stylish and grimy than Resynced's polished look, and I prefer it for a pirate adventure.

I just don't think Resynced's marquee features are all that important to me. I kept going through this exercise with Resynced where a new feature would be introduced and I'd assume it was new to the remake—"Oh wow, a home I can customize and improve over time! Neat, they added more ship ammo types! I don't remember these Mayan statue puzzles. Naval contracts? That's definitely new"—only to realize all of them existed in the original, untouched by the remake process.

Resynced is decent, but it takes away more than it adds, as if Ubisoft wasn't confident in the hit game it made 13 years ago. It's a conflicted remake that's worth a look, but is ultimately inessential.

There's no sign of the gleaming Abstergo Industries office that once served as the modern day framing for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, but playing this game for the first time in 12 years feels a bit like time travel anyway. Before Ubisoft dropped Assassin's Creed's sci-fi conceit, each game was meant to be a strikingly immersive VR recreation of some past place and time, just as your character's ancestor would remember it.

Except, well, this time the ancestor is me circa 2014, and Black Flag Resynced has recreated the best Assassin's Creed just as I remember it.

My memory, it turns out, is about as accurate to the original game as Ezio Auditore da Firenze's battle with the Pope was to real 15th century Italian history. Before I sit down to play Black Flag, Ubisoft highlights everything that it's upgraded. Combat is totally reworked, with much punchier animations and perfect parries and dodges. Loading between cities and the open ocean? Gone now. Weather's dynamic, pirate-turned-assassin Edward Kenway has a crouch button, and you better believe that lighting is ray traced now.

But it still feels intimately familiar as I step aboard the Jackdaw or go parkouring across a lush island, climbing into the crook of a Y-shaped tree. The waves always looked this foamy, right? (They didn't). The sky and sea were always such a welcoming iridescent blue, weren't they? (They weren't). Edward always moved this cleanly from leap to roll to run, didn't he? (Of course not).

This is a textbook remaster: all the ways in which it's better graft cleanly onto the old bones like a top-dollar Hollywood facelift.

Anchors away

For the developers at Ubisoft, making Resynced has been less time travel, more archeology. "I like to say we feel like historians, working on this," says game director Richard Knight. "You dream about a bunch of things when you go through a remake. How do I modernize it, what kind of cool visuals and gameplay changes can I get. But the thing that always sticks with me the most is the quality of life features."

He gives a few examples. As introduced in AC Odyssey, there's now a button on the map screen to fast travel to the Jackdaw, so you don't have to spend 10 minutes swimming back to where you left the ship. There's a shanty player, so you can choose what song to ask the crew to sing. But much of the game remains either unchanged, or changed in ways consistent with the series.

"Sometimes we need to reinvent a system, like ground combat, and look back at the brand and go 'okay, what button was this feature on?' How many games had a blowdart, which one makes the most sense for us? Sometimes there are even animations from past games that we've added to combat for takedowns, where it makes sense. While other things we're like, 'nope, this works exactly as it should, and we should keep it.'"

Black Flag was the last AC I played start to finish, before Ubisoft declared them RPGs and slapped XP and skill trees onto an already stuffed open world frame. The subsequent decade of tinkering (or bloat, if we're being less generous) leaves Resynced strangely both throwback and palate cleanser. Ubisoft has only made it more like its RPG descendents in teensy ways, like an equipment screen with more outfit choices, and a dedicated button for manually raising or lowering the assassin cowl.

"Edward's journey and the gameplay itself is always about rushing forward," says Knight. "He's an action game kind of hero who happens to also be a pirate and an assassin, so it was critical for us to keep that spirit alive and not to change it. I love some of the RPG [Assassin's Creeds] as well, but they go in a different direction, and we want to stay true to Black Flag's direction of always driving forward."

The art of a remaster, in Knight's words, is as much about capturing the emotions of the original game as the facts of it—a perfect analog for tall tales from the Golden Age of Piracy. This one's still waiting to be bettered.

On top of a major graphical update, a new sword fighting system, and three new officers to recruit, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is touching up countless little things about the 2013 pirate game. Alas, it's not adding the one thing I really hoped to see more of—the coolest, and to my memory most challenging diversions to be found in the Caribbean. Those cursed legendary ships.

The video above, taken from the original game, shows a player fighting the apex predators of Black Flag. The level 75 vessels are far greater threats than most of the ships you'll fight throughout the campaign. There's El Impoluto, with its ramming attack; La Dama Negra with heavy side armor and dual mortars; the HMS Fearless and the HMS Royal Sovereign, who fought side-by-side; and the HMS Prince, which lurked in a fog so thick sailors took it for a ghost ship.

In later games, Ubisoft built on these legendary duels to spin up more creative, ultimately even mythological boss fights—like Assassin's Creed Valhalla's legendary animals. They're some of the coolest bits of these games anytime they show up. I'd take three more legendary ships to battle over Resynced's three new crew members in a heartbeat—but game director Richard Knight told me that Black Flag's five legendary ships remains a quintet.

"We still have the same originals," Knight said. "There's another really tough ship in the game that I won't mention, but we still have those guys back."

I also asked Knight about the decision for Resynced to skip over Freedom Cry, the acclaimed DLC focused on Kenway's former quartermaster Adéwalé, and the freeing of enslaved Africans. Ubisoft has said it decided to focus purely on Edward's story for Resynced, but could Freedom Cry end up as DLC once again?

"With Assassin's Creed as a whole, it's got all these compelling stories and characters, so I don't think you can ever rule anything out," Knight said. "But we really hope for now we can give you everything you wanted out of Edward's experience, and we'll see what the future holds."

In a not-so-alternate alternate timeline, actor Matt Ryan may well have ended up playing a growling, sweaty pirate on Black Sails, the improbably stellar 2014 TV series prequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novel Treasure Island. He would've been a good fit for it. But in this reality, he instead ended up playing the lead role of a pirate in 2013's Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, his first and so far only videogame credit.

In an interview with PC Gamer, Ryan said he ended up loving the experience of acting for a game—even though when he auditioned for the role, it was actually masquerading as a show to keep the Assassin's Creed sequel a secret.

"It was pitched to me via my agent as a pirate TV show," he remembered. "Amy Hubbard, a great casting director in the UK, got me into the room, and then they liked me. They asked me for a callback, and then they leveled with me. They were like, listen: this is a videogame. They said it was an Assassin's Creed, and I'd played the first one, so I was like 'great, that's a cool game.' But I didn't think it was mocap—so when it was mocap, I was over the moon. I get to be the character, in the body, you know?"

Ryan saw "all the seasons in Montreal" as he traveled back and forth from the UK and the Ubisoft studio where Black Flag was being developed. A year later he landed the role of John Constantine for a short-lived TV adaptation of the DC Comics series, which he's returned to for a number of animated films.

It was early into his run as Constantine that Ryan discovered how beloved a character Edward Kenway had become.

"I did my first Comic-Con, and that's when people would be coming up dressed as Constantine," he said. "And then there'd be all these Edward Kenways in line. I'd be like, oh, this is great. I knew it was a good game, because I played it, but it was around then that I started getting a sense for the fandom of the character, and seeing the amount of work they put into designing those costumes—some would take a year to build the costume, you know? They'd be coming to me and quoting their favorite lines.

"You know, as an actor, if you do a play, it's one performance it's gone, and there is something kind of wonderful about a performance that's fleeting. And with TV and movies, people watch it once, maybe twice if you're lucky, so they spend a bit of time with you. But with a videogame, they spend a lot of time with you… It's been really, really nice after all these years to be invited back to this role, and to feel that this character is as beloved as it is."

Ubisoft suck at keeping a secret. It's long had a problem with leaks, and the Assassin's Creed series has probably suffered more from that than its other series. Even Ubisoft has joked about Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced being "gaming's worst kept secret" following leak after leak. Much like the Age of Piracy in Black Flag, Ubisoft's age of leaks isn't over either.

Just yesterday, YouTuber xJ0nathan posted on X a supposed screenshot of Assassin's Creed's (codenamed) Invictus, a dedicated multiplayer spinoff. Honestly, there's not even much in the image to go off, just a character holding two weapons in an untextured liminal space. It's kinda exactly what you'd expect from a very, very early look at an Assassin's Creed game.

The official Assassin's Creed Twitter account responded to this leak, saying: "Nice try." While Ubisoft notes that the image "might have started as an image from our private test", it's since been "heavily altered (most probably with AI)."

If you're going to leak, do it well, I guess, as this hasn't got Ubisoft's stamp of approval: "Not great to spread misinformation."

Now, with little actual information on the game to go off, Ubisoft has promised updates on the project in the future, saying that "those genuinely curious" will hear more "when the time is right".

xJ0nathan has since followed up the original leak with a new, similar image that supposedly doesn't have any AI alterations, though there are some inconsistencies between the two images.

Either way, I'm all for a dedicated Assassin's Creed multiplayer game. Ever since its removal after Black Flag (there was co-op multiplayer in Unity, mind), I've missed its unique brand of social-stealth PvP.

Ubisoft has released the first of what it says will be "a series of deep dive articles" into the upcoming Assassin's Creed Black Resynced, serving up a close look at the smooth new moves pirate-assassin Edward Kenway will employ as he murders his way across the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Parkour, stealth, and combat in Black Flag Resynced have all been—you guessed it!—"rebuilt from the ground up" to take advantage of advancements made in the series over the 13 years since the original Black Flag debuted. Creative director Paul Fu said the intent is "to honor the foundations of the original game while enhancing the experience for an action-adventure game."

Much of what's revealed in the showcase is what you'd expect from a remake of a game that's more than a decade old: Fenway's movement will be "snappier and more deliberate," for instance, while the "Observe" feature introduced in Assassin's Creed Shadows will enable him to more easily find clues and objectives, and to tag enemies. Tailing and eavesdropping have been improved so missions won't fail if you lose track of your target,

The update also digs into takedowns, environmental combat, and new "advanced attacks," and warns that "combat in Resynced is more demanding than before," as enemies will adapt to your behaviour, especially if you fall into predictable patterns.

"For example, wait around too much for a parry, and enemies will react by performing Unstoppable Attacks that cannot be parried," Fu said. "Abuse a kick too much, and enemies will quickly dodge them. The trick is to alternate between offense and defense. Varying your combos helps. Rotate between kicks, sweeps, rope darts, pistols and heavy strikes at the end of your attack combos to confuse enemies."

I wouldn't say that charging into a camp in broad daylight and loudly perforating a bunch of guys strikes me as the acme of professional assassination, but dead is dead, I suppose.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resyned comes out on July 9, and is available for pre-purchase now on Steam and the Epic Games Store.

As reported by IGN, Assassin's Creed Hexe game director Benoit Richer has left the project. Richer is the second director-level developer to leave the team this year, with creative director Clint Hocking having departed in February.

Richer announced his career move on LinkedIn. According to the website for Servo Games, Richer is a cofounder of the new studio alongside three other former Ubisoft devs: Luc Tremblay, Danny Marcoux, and Alex Droun.

On February 25, we reported on the departure of Hexe's creative director, Clint Hocking, who was immediately replaced with Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag director Jean Guesden. Ubisoft has not yet publicly shared Richer's replacement as game director on Hexe.

Any number of things could be going on behind the scenes of Hexe's development, but back-to-back departures in a team's senior leadership is rarely a sign things are going well. Hexe remains a complete mystery otherwise: It's got distinctly witchy vibes, both with its name, as well as the creepy twig version of the Assassin log featured in its 2022 reveal trailer.

Ubisoft has described it as being a different sort of game from the open world, action-RPG era of Assassin's Creed that began with 2017's Origins, but that could mean any number of things. In the more near future of the series, we finally got to see Black Flag Resynced last week, the worst-kept secret in gaming. The long-rumored Assassin's Creed 4 remake will release on July 9, and it will apparently still have blood, if you were worried.

Assassin's Creed's former overall franchise boss, Marc-Alexis Côté, left the series and Ubisoft last year, and that particular break-up hasn't been pretty: Côté has sued Ubisoft alleging "constructive dismissal" (basically getting pressured into resigning through hostile working conditions). Côté is claiming $1.3 million Canadian in damages.

The Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake is just over yon horizon, scheduled to dock this summer, nevermind the leaky hull that Ubisoft always springs when trying to keep a secret. The fourth mainline Assassin's Creed game was an unequivocal pirate game favorite in the years before we had Sea of Thieves. It's still got a place in a lot of hearts thanks to roguish pirate protagonist Edward Kenway and his antics rallying a bunch of pirate legends to a haven in Nassau.

When is the Black Flag Resynced release date?

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launches on July 9, 2026 on PC (via Steam or Epic), PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S for $60 / £50.

What's new in Black Flag Resynced?

Remake or remaster?

Ubisoft says that Black Flag has been "rebuilt from the ground up" in the latest version of its Ubisoft Anvil Engine, the version it used for Mirage and Shadows. So let's call it a remake, then. Ubisoft says that the upgrade is bringing modern tech like ray-traced lighting, water rendering, and weather simulation.

Who's making it?

Ubisoft Singapore is leading development on Resynced. Yup, that's the studio that did Skull and Bones, for better or worse, "with many of the original game’s developers returning to bring the game to the latest generation of hardware," Ubisoft adds.

Combat and stealth got a rework

Ubisoft was big on highlighting the way that combat has been updated: mostly the ability to do parries and takedowns. It's been "rebuilt from the ground up", and that combat in Resynced is more demanding than before as enemies will adapt to your behaviour, especially if you fall into predictable patterns.

On the stealth side, it highlights how Kenway can now freely crouch whenever as a stealth approach. That plays into all those many tailing missions, which it says have been updated so that being spotted doesn't just instantly fail the mission and instead just means you'll transition to head-on combat to resolve the situation. So stealth is encouraged, but perhaps not required.

What else is new?

• New story scenes, including one with Edward's wife Caroline
• 3 new recruitable crew officers (Lucy Baldwin, "The Padre", and Tobias "Deadman" Smith) with their own story questlines
• The modern day segments connecting to the animus feature "new moments that focus on Edward's internal struggles"
• 10 new sea shanties featuring French artist Woodkid
• Six hours of new quests, and "similar activities"
• Kenway’s Fleet mini-game no longer trapped on an app, you can now play it in-game
• New weapon upgrades for your ship
• Ziplines scattered across the cities
• You can manually jump whenever you like
• The Observe feature in AC Shadows has been added to Eagle Vision
• Cat or monkey pet to live on your ship (Jackd—awwwww, right?)

What's staying the same?

What's NOT in Black Flag Resynced?

After a year of leaks and horsing around that Ubisoft probably didn't find nearly as funny as I did, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced was finally given the official curtain-lifting today. The reveal of "gaming's worst-kept secret" was pretty much what we expected—it's a remake of Black Flag—but hidden in Ubisoft's big announcement roundup is a fun little bit of trivia: Development is being led by Ubisoft Singapore.

Ubisoft Singapore is one of the many studios Ubisoft has around the world, but it's notable in this particular context because Singapore is also the developer of Skull and Bones, Ubi's other big pirate fantasy adventure—the game whose well-documented difficulties enabled me to do this:

Skull and Bones was the victim of its own Ubisoft curse, you see. Where Black Flag Resync was destined to leak, Skull and Bones was doomed to delays, at least one of which happened less than two months ahead of its planned release in 2022. That date was itself the result of multiple prior delays: Skull and Bones was announced in 2017 and was originally supposed to be out in the fall of 2018. Missed it by that much.

I'm not suggesting here that Ubisoft is going to mash the brakes on Black Flag Resynced until 2032: As much as I enjoy utterly baseless, wild speculation, I'm pretty confident it will make its July 9 release target.

But recall that work on Skull and Bones began in 2013, right on the heels of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's release, and it was originally envisioned as a multiplayer expansion for Black Flag. After more than 10 years of tossin' on turbulent seas, Singapore finally shoves Skull and Bones out the door, and what do they get told? Yer doin' Black Flag again!

It's a living, as the saying goes, but holy cow. After 13 solid years of working on Edward Kenway and his various legally distinct spinoff adventures, I would imagine the Singapore squad is really looking forward to turning its attention to something different. Hey, maybe Ubisoft can put 'em to work on Beyond Good and Evil 2. Getting that out the door shouldn't eat up more than, oh, another 17 years.

For the record, Ubisoft Singapore isn't working on Black Flag Resynced alone. They're not included on the announcement page but mashed down in the fine print of the actual press release is a list of co-dev studios, and it's basically like someone put Gary Oldman in charge of production: The full roster includes: Ubisoft Barcelona, Ubisoft Belgrade, Ubisoft Blue Byte, Ubisoft Bordeaux, Ubisoft Bucharest, Ubisoft Chengdu, Ubisoft Da Nang, Ubisoft India, Ubisoft Kyiv, Ubisoft Montpellier, Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft Philippines, Ubisoft Quebec, Ubisoft Shanghai, and Ubisoft Sofia.

After more than a year of leaks that got so out of hand they forced Ubisoft's legal department to crack a smile, the big moment is finally upon us: Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been formally, fully, and finally revealed to the world. And it won't be too long before we get to actually play it, as Ubisoft also unveiled the launch date of July 9.

We've also got the Black Flag Resynced PC system requirements:

• Minimum System Requirements For 1920x1080, 30 FPS, Low Preset, Ray Tracing – Standard, Upscaler – Balanced
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz, AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (6GB), AMD Radeon RX5500XT (8GB) or Intel ARC A580 (8GB)
  • RAM: 16GB (Dual-channel setup)
  • Storage space: 65 GB (SSD required)
  • OS: Windows 11
• Recommended System Requirements For 1920x1080, 60 FPS, Medium Preset, Ray Tracing – Standard, Upscaler – Balanced
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-10600K 4.1 GHz, AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB), AMD Radeon RX6600XT (8GB), or Intel ARC B580 (12GB)
  • RAM: 16GB (Dual-channel setup)
  • Storage space: 65 GB (SSD required)
  • OS: Windows 11
• Recommended System Requirements For 2560x1440 (2K), 60 FPS, High Preset, Ray Tracing – Standard, Upscaler – Balanced
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-11600K 3.9 GHz, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 (10GB) or AMD Radeon RX6800XT (16GB)
  • RAM: 16GB (Dual-channel setup)
  • Storage space: 65 GB (SSD required)
  • OS: Windows 11
• Recommended System Requirements For 3840x2160 (4K), 60 FPS, Ultra Preset, Ray Tracing – Extended, Upscaler – Quality
  • CPU: Intel Core i7-12700K 3.6 GHz, AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 3 GHz
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB) or AMD Radeon RX7900XTX (24GB)
  • RAM: 16GB (Dual-channel setup)
  • Storage space: 65 GB (SSD required)
  • OS: Windows 11

A Core i7-8700K, GTX 1660, and 16GB RAM struck me as a little on the steep side for a minimum spec—although some of that feeling may arise from the fact that Black Flag originally came out in 2013. You shouldn't need that much horsepower to run a 2013 game, right?

It's not really a 2013 game, of course: Black Flag Resynced is "rebuilt from the ground up" in Ubisoft's Anvil engine, and as PC Gamer hardware writer Nick Evanson noted, the Resynced requirements are quite similar to those of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which he said "makes sense, because they're both on Anvil."

Black Flag Resynced promises "updated visuals and enriched gameplay, including parry driven combat, improved stealth and parkour, deeper naval mechanics, and new narrative content." Among that new content is a trio of new officers who can join you on your adventures—Lucy Baldwin, the Padre, and Dead Man Smith—each with their own unique quest that reveals more about their histories. They'll also bring new special abilities to your ship, like double shots from broadside weapons.

"Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced matters deeply to us and to you," game director Richard Knight said during today's showcase. "That's why we took the time to rebuild it with the care it deserves. This remains a solo adventure and character-driven experience. It is not an RPG. The focus stays on how you play and how you explore the world."

That might seem like kind of an odd thing to focus on, but there's a point: Creative director Paul Fu said that because Ubisoft wants Resynced to be a "pure story-driven adventure" that's "fully focused on Edward's adventures," it will not offer the multiplayer elements that were in the original game.

Here's a deeper dive into the updated gameplay:

And some new screens:

It's been quite a ride, with spoilers coming from merch makers, voice actors, age rating boards, and various "anonymous sources," who probably aren't used to having to stand in line when they want to spill some beans.

Ubisoft didn't take that leakiness especially well at first but eventually had a change of heart about the whole thing and decided to embrace the absurdity of it all. Which was understandable, really: Have to laugh to keep yourself from crying, and all that.

The standard edition of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced goes for $60, and is up for pre-purchase now on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and the Ubisoft Store. Ubisoft also confirmed during today's showcase that the original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag will remain available for purchase.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will be out on July 9—I already said that, I know, but a reminder never hurts. In the meantime, why not try our new pirate quiz? I can promise* you that "What's a pirate's favorite letter?" is absolutely not one of the questions.

(*not actually a promise, I have no idea)

Sometimes you just gotta roll with the punches and, credit where it's due, Ubisoft eventually leaned into the fact that its Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake became, in the publisher's own words, "the worst-kept secret in gaming."

The remake's existence was revealed ahead of time by countless leaks: everything from age rating boards to anonymous sources to its own lead actor, Matt Ryan—who then said he wouldn't be saying any more because "the company threatened to sue me." It got leaked by the existence of a statue. Twice.

Finally wiser heads prevailed and Ubisoft began meme-ing about the game, and yesterday officially confirmed that the game will be revealed later this week. But wait! There's still time for the leakiest game ever to offer up one more leak for old times' sake, with a clip from what is presumably the reveal trailer finding its way onto X.

The clip gives our first look at in-game footage, with protagonist Edward Kenway alongside Blackbeard during some naval warfare, with lots of explosions and rousing battle cries. It's only a short snippet but there's time enough to see Kenway wielding cutlasses, Blackbeard jollying around with a telescope, cannons being loaded, and Kenway taking the ship's wheel.

It also features Matt Ryan delivering the line "so let the Black Flag signal nothing but your allegiance to man's natural freedoms", so it's nice to know that Ubisoft definitely did call off the lawyers.

Some fans have already stitched together comparison shots, which show the remake does have much more detailed character models and improved lighting. Though if we're being honest this was always a great-looking game: it's a glow-up, sure, but I don't know how many folks who own the original will be rushing to throw their money at Ubisoft.

The official reveal of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will be during a showcase on Thursday, April 23 which takes place at 9am PST / 12pm EST / 5pm GMT. Hopefully the hull of Kenway's boat proves less leaky than the project itself.

The long-rumored, many times-leaked Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remake is official. Ubisoft dropped the confirmation in an email to press laying out the future of the Assassin's Creed series, sandwiched between sparse details about a future co-op AC game and the upcoming Netflix show.

"Speculation around Assassin’s Creed is not new, but it’s worth repeating: 'Nothing is true. Everything is permitted,'" the announcement reads. "Well, except in this case, some whispers have a little more wind in their sails. Keep your spyglass on the horizon."

Attached is a piece of art from the remake, officially dubbed Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced (a triple name-er), of pirate assassin Edward Kenway standing on the mast of his Jackdaw.

Sure man, let's do it. It's still a little funny that the first Assassin's Creed game getting the remake treatment is the sixth one in the series, but if you're throwing your weight behind a full-fledged do-over, you might as well start with everyone's favorite.

Black Flag was a triumphant little comeback for AC after two disappointing years in a row—Revelations in 2011 and AC3 in 2012—that layered unexpectedly fantastic open-world sailing on top of the best version of its sneaky-stabbing at the time. I never loved how it traded signature urban jungles for smaller settlements and actual jungles, but sailing the high seas with my mates while making swiss cheese of the British armada was so fun that I didn't really mind.

Ubi also just clearly has a soft spot for its pirate game—it's no coincidence that the director of the original Black Flag, Jean Guesden, was recently tapped to replace Clint Hocking as director of the next mainline AC on the books, Project Hexe.

Also, is it worth talking about how Ubisoft has erased the "4" from Black Flag's title? That's kinda weird. Do we think that's just some marketing-fu to avoid naming confusion, or is Ubi setting the stage for Black Flag to become a sub-series that gets its own sequels, a-la Modern Warfare?

It's been a rough few years for Ubisoft. Skull and Bones became a $200 million folly, one of several failed attempts to capitalise on live-service popularity; staff are revolting due to layoffs, studio closures and a mandatory return-to-office command; and after years of trying to curtail the influence of Tencent, the Chinese publisher now controls more than 26% of newly-formed Assassin's Creed subsidiary Vantage Studios.

Alex Hutchinson, who served as Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed 3's creative director, before leaving Ubisoft to found Typhoon Studios in 2017, believes the company's fall is down to several factors, which have been hammering the publisher for a while now—it's why he left.

"It's a shame," he tells us. "I think a bunch of things happened. The style of development we pioneered was being able to manage big teams by letting them be individual groups with ownership of their own thing, to allow us to make bigger games faster. But then I think with the recent boom, there's been a weird five year boom in private equity and investment from people which we hadn't seen before ever. So a lot of senior people left Ubisoft and started studios or splintered off. So there was this talent drain that went out."

Hutchinson was among them. He co-founded Typhoon in 2017, which released its first game, Journey to the Savage Planet, in 2020. Unfortunately, Typhoon was acquired by Stadia in 2019, and when Google decided its experiment in cloud gaming had failed, Typhoon was one of its casualties.

With so much talent leaving, Hutchinson reckons, the massive scale of the company "suddenly became a noose". The pandemic only made things worse.

"If you have a team of 800 people," he says, "it's really hard to manage, even if they're in the same building. If they're not coming to work, how do you police them? How do you make sure what's going on is going on? And then juniors don't learn because they like working from home, and they don't like asking questions. So I think they lost that momentum as well."

Back when Ubisoft was fighting fit, it released Assassin's Creed, Assassin's Creed 2, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Assassin's Creed 3 and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag in a mere six years. But in the last six years, we've just had Valhalla and Shadows. Mirage, too, I guess, but that was originally meant to be Valhalla DLC.

Fewer sequels isn't a bad thing, especially if it's accompanied by more fresh ideas and new games. But that hasn't happened at Ubisoft, says Hutchinson.

"They always had a history of sequelizing the franchises, but also having a couple of new things coming along. They became very allergic to the new things, and so they killed a bunch of our ideas, like when I was working on Pioneer. They had nothing new to come through."

Pioneer was going to be a sci-fi romp that deviated from Ubisoft's traditionally more violent open-world outings by focusing on peaceful exploration. It was teased in Watch Dogs 2, but never saw the light of day.

Hutchinson and the other leads were pushed out in 2016 and Ubisoft put the project under new leadership. Shortly after, Hutchinson left Ubisoft, along with other former Pioneer leads. In 2019, after years of Ubisoft staying silent regarding the project, Hutchinson confirmed it had been cancelled.

At the same time, Kotaku reported that it was actually still alive, but that Ubisoft had made another change: now this peaceful exploration game would be a co-op shooter. That's so different from the original vision that it might as well have been canned. And seven years later, it's still just a rumour.

Ubisoft's treatment of Pioneer is the reason Hutchinson left, which allowed him to create his own sci-fi exploration game—albeit with some combat. And even when Typhoon was shuttered when Stadia was killed off, the team reformed under Raccoon Logic, giving us the excellent sequel Revenge of the Savage Planet.

The way Hutchinson frames Ubisoft's troubles makes it sound like death from a thousand cuts. "There's a million tiny things, as well," he says. "They're essentially a packaged goods business, and they had trouble figuring out digital as a whole platform." Just take a look at Ubisoft Connect, formerly Uplay, and its impotent struggle against Steam, where you will once again find all of Ubisoft's games.

And Ubisoft's troubles seem far from over. Only last week it laid off 40 people from its Toronto studio, as part of an ongoing restructuring effort that has included numerous cancellations, studio closures and layoffs.

The human cost of this restructuring effort is grotesque, but one of its goals, the establishing of various creative houses, does sound a bit like an attempt to return to individual studios having ownership of their projects. It's not doing anything for Ubisoft's dire public image, though, and even if we're being optimistic, it's going to be years before gamers actually see the results.

Of all Ubisoft's follies, Skull and Bones feels like one of the most significant—a game that took the best parts of Assassin's Creed 3 and Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, and just stuck them in a dodgy live service treadmill.

It took a decade to make, seemed to be perpetually delayed, and just kept changing. It started out as a Black Flag expansion, then a Black Flag MMO spin-off, then something entirely unrelated to Assassin's Creed. It was a huge mess, had no vision, and Ubisoft still charged $70 for it.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot defended the steep price by calling it a "quadruple-A game". Nobody believed him.

The whole saga seemed ridiculous. At no point were we shown anything to justify Guillemot's confidence, and sure enough, the game failed to make a splash. Now imagine how weird it would have been to watch this all unfold if you'd designed the bones it was built on.

Before leaving Ubisoft to co-found the studios behind Journey to the Savage Planet (Typhoon) and Revenge of the Savage Planet (Raccoon Logic), Alex Hutchinson was the creative director on Far Cry 4 and Assassin's Creed 3, the first Assassin's Creed to give us the naval battles, which would eventually lead to the brilliant Black Flag.

It was "bizarre", he tells us, "to see essentially the same stuff re-shipping 14 years after we made it". Assassin's Creed 3's sailing was an experiment that Ubisoft didn't have a lot of faith in, but it proved to be the game's greatest feature, resulting in it being given top billing in both Black Flag and Rogue. But it was old news by the time Skull and Bones finally launched.

"Ideas have a window, and that's another reason we're trying to do things faster this time," he says. "They age out and become stale. I think the team was junior. They were trying to essentially make Black Flag crossed with World of Tanks or World of Warships. But I don't think they had experience in that. And then they didn't really have experience in making even an Assassin's Creed game down there, because they really did co-development. And then I think it just got away from them."

Ubisoft Singapore was established in 2008 and, by the time it was working on Skull and Bones, had ballooned to more than 300 employees. Prior to that, it mostly served as a support studio, and assisted in the development of every Assassin's Creed from AC2 onward.

While Ubisoft would sometimes send devs from the Canadian and French studios to help Ubisoft Singapore, Hutchinson describes these excursions as holidays.

"For a lot of the French or Canadian developers, they would go down to Singapore for a year's holiday," he says. "They weren't going down there to make that studio huge. They were like, 'Oh, that'd be fun to work for a year in Singapore.' I don't think they were serious. And you couldn't get as many people, the talent pool just wasn't deep enough."

When Skull and Bones finally launched, it found itself jockeying for position with countless other live service games, many of which were free to play. What may have seemed novel and full of potential in 2013 had become rote. The only surprise is that Ubisoft is still maintaining it, but I suspect it will end up in Davy Jones's locker before too long.

Ubisoft's big restructuring has left the Assassin's Creed series under the control of Vantage Studios, one of five "creative houses" (and still the only one with a name) charged with carrying its brands into the future. What that means in practical terms is unclear: The only concrete impact up to today was the loss of former Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Côté, who said he was forced out just seven months after the success of Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Today Ubisoft announced who will be taking the reins on the Assassin's Creed series, and it's not one guy but three guys, a "trio of experts of the series, who will bring their expertise, knowledge, and passion to guide Assassin’s Creed into its next chapter." They are:

Martin Schelling, Head of Brand: "He will lead the franchise team, as well as the overall strategy, long term vision, and development of Assassin's Creed. Martin previously worked as a Producer and Senior Producer on many defining titles in the series, including Revelations, Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla."

Jean Guesdon, Head of Content: "He will lead the creative direction of the franchise, support ongoing projects, and help shape the franchise’s future while ensuring it remains true to its DNA. You probably remember Jean for his work as Creative Director on Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag and Assassin’s Creed Origins. But his history with the series goes all the way back to Assassin’s Creed II. His contribution to the brand is immense, and we are delighted to see him return to help shape this next exciting chapter."

François De Billy, Head of Production Excellence: "He will support our teams by strengthening production practices and execution across the franchise. François recently worked as Senior Director, Global Production, and contributed to several major Assassin’s Creed titles, including Revelations and Black Flag, and more recently as Production Director on AC Origins and AC Valhalla."

I won't pretend to fully grasp the distinctions between leading a creative franchise and leading a franchise creatively (which is why I quoted all of the above from the announcement post on Reddit), and it's fun to imagine that the entirety of De Billy's job involves wandering around the office telling people to "Be excellent!" like some kind of game dev Bill and Ted. (That's probably not it, though.)

Regardless of the specifics, all three have long histories at Ubisoft, although as the announcement suggests, Guesdon is the only one with specific Assassin's Creed roots, while Schelling and De Billy have been more Ubisoft generalists over the past several years. Guesden actually left Ubisoft in 2023 after 17 years at Ubi, but said in today's announcement on Reddit that "it is wonderful to be back after all these years."

"Assassin’s Creed has been a defining part of my professional life and being back feels like coming home. This universe, these characters, these worlds, and of course the community have always meant so much to me. I’m especially grateful to be sharing this journey with all of you again, and look forward to sharing more about the next steps ahead for the franchise."

Assassin's Creed is one of Ubisoft's premiere properties, and as it goes, so goes Ubisoft. But this shakeup still feels a bit odd to me. Côté, the previous vice president and executive producer of Assassin's Creed, is a long-time veteran of the series himself, and had overseen a string of successes beginning with Assassin's Creed Odyssey in 2018. He was also a vocal defender of developers amidst the ugly backlash over the presence of Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows, which despite the fevered hopes of some portions of gamerdom proved to be a major success. All of which makes me wonder—why mess with it?

Joining Schelling, Guesdon, and De Billy at the top of the Assassin's Creed pile are Andrée-Anne Boisvert, Producer for Assassin’s Creed’s cross-brand initiatives and Head of Technological Excellence, and Lionel Hiller, VP Brand and Go-to-Market Strategy. Ubisoft said they'll formally join the leadership team over the next few weeks, "where they are set to steer the brand’s ambitious new chapter."

In hindsight, Assassin's Creed 3 is both fascinating and fundamental to the later development of the series. At the time, the expansive wilderness and smaller settlements felt restrictive compared to the series' massive cities, but it gave Ubisoft a model it would carry on successfully many years later in Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla and Shadows. And then there were the ships.

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remains one of the high points for the Assassin's Creed, with its nautical open world and piratical antics, but it was Assassin's Creed 3 that really kicked things off by letting players explore the Eastern Seaboard and parts of the Caribbean in naval side missions. Some of its changes proved to be divisive, but pretty much everyone seemed to agree that captaining a ship felt incredible. So why wasn't there more of it?

"There was a whole fear that the tech [for the ships] wouldn't work," Alex Hutchinson, creative director on AC3 and Far Cry 4, tells us. Even in an Assassin's Creed that was already proving to be experimental, the feature was too much of an unknown quantity for the team to put all its faith in.

"So it couldn't be a huge part of the main story, because we weren't certain it was going to work," he continues. "And then when it was cool, then you're like, 'This is great.'" It was indeed cool. So cool, in fact, that Ubisoft went and built a whole Assassin's Creed out of it, with Black Flag, and then did it again in the Templar-focused Rogue spin-off. Odyssey, and to a lesser degree Valhalla, made ships an important part of their respective adventures too.

Hutchinson says this is "the old AAA model", where the alpha build would come in two months before launch, followed by the beta and final build in quick succession. "I think [Ubisoft is] really struggling with [this] now," he adds. Naturally, he notes, this means the devs don't get a look at the game "in its totality" until it's almost out the door.

When he co-founded Typhoon, the studio behind the excellent Journey to the Savage Planet, it was decided that alpha would happen in the middle of development. "And then that means you have to be hard about what you keep and what you cut, but you can see the shape of the game basically. Then we could have been like, 'Alright, this naval thing is going to be fine, put it everywhere.'"

Typhoon was acquired by Stadia, and then killed off when Stadia closed its doors in 2021. But much of the team were reunited, co-founding Raccoon Logic, which released Revenge of the Savage Planet last year. It's still doing alphas a lot earlier than Ubisoft.

It's not exactly Mirror's Edge, but the robust free-running parkour system has always been a huge draw for Assassin's Creed enjoyers. It changes a lot from game to game, and everyone has their favorite implementation, but it might be time to reassess: Shadows's parkour just got a big upgrade with manual jumping.

"It’s finally here," exclaim the latest patch notes, which you can find on Ubisoft's website. "We've heard your request and are bringing back a fan favorite feature for parkour: the manual jump."

So long as you have Advanced Parkour enabled, you can jump at will to dismount a structure gracefully or hop toward a nearby obstacle. Currently, both comments on Ubisoft's short video demonstration are just the word "peak," so you know people are excited.

It might seem like a silly thing to get worked up about. I can jump in all sorts of games, and if Shadows was perfectly playable without it, what does it matter if they add the button now? Well, AC movement is as beloved for its expressiveness as it is for its functionality—something you can glean by watching any number of parkour montages where players clamber around buildings just to show off—so this is less quality of life and more an extra dose of delicious freedom.

Players on social media are pleased as punch. Reddit user Adipay commented, "Shadows now has one of the best parkour systems in the franchise." A concurrent comment from ZillaJrKaijuKing reads, "I picked a good time to reinstall."

There's other stuff in the new update, as well: critical hits have more detailed visual feedback now, the animus menu can now be accessed via a glitchy portal in your hideout, and a slew of bug fixes have been thrown in for good measure.

It's a good day if you're still on the Assassin's Creed Shadows train, which PC Gamer staff writer Morgan Park scored an 80 in his review; "Shadows is some of the most fun I've had with a stealth game in a decade," he said.

You've just completed one of Unity's black box assassination missions, an infiltration with multiple diversions and entrances to find and exploit. The next mission has you meet up with Elise, your templar girlfriend, on the streets of revolutionary Paris. She's being pursued by a mob of templar thugs—her faction aren't fans of her or you at this point in the story—and you get roped into the chase. Literally. Her escape route leads to a demonstration of a hot-air balloon, the same model the Montgolfier brothers used just nine years previous in the first manned balloon flight. Of course, she jumps in. It's your job to cut the ropes while fighting off the first wave of pursuers.

It's a perfect setup for the kind of over-the-top pseudo-historical hijinks the Assassin's Creed games specialize in. This is Ezio piloting Leonardo da Vinci's prototype tank, or Lydia Frye shooting down biplanes over London with an experimental anti-aircraft gun. The Montgolfier springs into the air with Elise in it, but not you. You have to parkour after it while Elise leans out to shoot snipers. When the Montgolfier gets tangled on a rooftop you cut it loose, with just enough time for a dramatic leap into the basket and a romantic moment as the wind whisks you far away from the chaos of Paris in 1792.

For a few moments, Assassin's Creed Unity is perfect. It'll come crashing back down to Earth eventually, but you've probably already heard about that.

The framerate. The clipping. The instability. The floating NPCs. The texture load-in delay, and the infamous screenshot of a character's teeth and eyeballs appearing before the rest of their face. The NPCs who interrupt cutscenes. The haycarts you could get stuck in. The one sidequest that can't be finished unless you quit out then go back in. The hassle connecting and staying connected for co-op. The extra dose of problems if you ran it on AMD hardware.

When it launched, Unity was in an absolute state. But where more recent games with troubled releases have been given the grace of critical reconsideration after patching, Unity remained a punchline even after Ubisoft put in the effort to repair it and then gave away the DLC for free.

In my last playthrough I saw a few NPCs hover off the ground, it's still a crapshoot whether you can hand in the sidequest to collect all the pieces of the guillotine, and flickering white lines appear if you use TXAA, but otherwise it runs well—better than most of the open world games I've played recently. They even patched out the requirement to engage with a mobile app so you can open the blue treasure chests, which was an infuriating bit of "second screen experience" madness at the time.

Play it today, and Assassin's Creed Unity is a reminder of what the series can be when it focuses on a single city. You can tidily wrap up Unity and its expansion Dead Kings in 40 hours without rushing. By contrast, you'll need that much time for just Valhalla's DLC, and nearly 100 more hours for the actual game.

Unity is about Paris—with brief excursions to Franciade and Versailles—and that means it can do Paris justice. The city looks like a painting by Nicolas-Jean-Baptiste Raguenet, all blue roof tiles and boats on the Seine, and when you freeclimb down to street level (downwards parkour being a Unity innovation) then you realize, merde, that's a lot of people.

Unity's crowds are something you don't see in other videogames. There are mobs of people burning effigies and waving flags or pikes with heads on them, dancing, drinking, proffering leaflets, stretching their arms for a garment-fitting outside the boutique, propositioning sex workers, arguing about politics, and singing La Marseillaise everywhere you go.

Thanks to Casablanca I can't hear La Marseillaise without having an emotional reaction. I don't care that some of Unity's early missions take place in 1791 and La Marseillaise was written in 1792, any time I'm walking the streets of Paris and I hear it start up I feel a wild swell of national pride for a country I have no relation to, and love for a city I spent a nice afternoon in once. Le jour de gloire est arrivé!

If you get sick of the revolution, you can jump in a rift and travel to a different time period. I'm pretty sure the the rifts exist as an excuse to let you climb the Eiffel Tower, which was built to mark the 100-year anniversary of the revolution and would be an anachronism too far even for Ubisoft, but they're also a replacement for the modern-day stuff the Assassin's Creed series outgrew long before Ubisoft finally ditched it.

Instead of bouncing out of the simulation to spend time with that boring Desmond dude, you bounce around inside the simulation to a jumbled and glitchy Belle Epoque version of Paris with the Statue of Liberty in it, and of course you ascend that too. Which is neat, though nothing beats hopping to occupied Vichy France in the 1940s to parkour up the Eiffel Tower while being shot at by German planes.

Between the spectacle setpieces and the Paris sandbox are actual stealth missions. Unity was the first Assassin's Creed game to have a crouch button, which is the central tenet of my argument that it's the first actual stealth game in the series. It's also the one that added separate controls for freerunning up and down, and one of the few that trusted you with a wealth of tools quickly accessible on the number keys (like Black Flag), making truly wild feats of skill possible.

It also made combat harder, with the automatic melee counter swapped for a parry that you need to follow up with a riposte yourself, and bullets that can drop you in no time flat. You feel fragile in a way that's valuable in a real stealth game, that makes you actually want to engage with semi-obscure mechanics like using berserk blades to immobilize guards just long enough to get a stealth kill in—useful if you run out of phantom blades—or ducking just to bring up enemies on the minimap, or throwing smoke bombs at enemies instead of yourself then using eagle vision to pick them out of the cloud for a projectile kill.

Assassin's Creed Unity released in 2014, and received a trial by social media like Mass Effect 3 had two years before, which outlasted any actual impressions of the game. The complaints about its shonkiness and lack of playable women in co-op were valid, but play it today and it holds up better than a lot of other Assassin's Creed games do. Still, the crowd bayed for blood and off came its head—leaving just the teeth and eyeballs.

If you're unaware that, somewhere in the bowels of Ubisoft's offices, an unannounced Black Flag remake is almost certainly bubbling away, then congratulations on waking from your coma.

It's perhaps the most open secret in videogames right now, spoiled ahead of time by everything from age rating boards to anonymous sources to its own lead actor, Matt Ryan—who subsequently told a different fan pressing him for info that'd say nothing more, because "the company threatened to sue me".

I guess Ubi's loosened up since then, because the official Assassin's Creed X account is now posting GTA memes about yet another possible leak. AC fan account Zephryss posted images of a statuette of Black Flag protagonist Edward Kenway, writing that it "might be the new Edward Kenway figurine for the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Remake" and had been found by fans on second-hand site Vinted.

In response, the AC account posted that old classic: CJ returning to San Andreas with the subtitles "Ah shit, here we go again." For reference, this would be the second time this remake has been leaked by a statue, if genuine.

Which is quite funny, to be fair, and makes sense: as I've written in too many headlines to count, the Black Flag remake is so clearly real that it's baffling Ubi hasn't just copped to its existence at this point. The AC account is hardly letting anything slip by engaging in a bit of social media bants over yet another leak.

Still, I do feel a bit bad for Matt Ryan (who was really quite good as OG Black Flag's beautifully Welsh protagonist): he gets an angry letter from the lawyers while others get a CJ meme.

Ubisoft announced sweeping changes to its business today, confirming more layoffs, major internal restructuring, and the cancelation of seven projects including Prince of Persia: The Sand of Time. At the same time it renewed its pledge to double down on generative AI.

In a document released today Ubisoft describes its "radically new value-creation" business model, which it claims will help it become "a more gamer-centric organization" thanks to a "rightsized and more agile organization".

It goes on: "The new operating model will further empower the execution of the Group's strategy, centered on Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences, supported by targeted investments, deeper specialization, and cutting-edge technology, including accelerated investments behind player-facing Generative AI."

Ubisoft's embrace of generative AI is nothing new. Last year the company revealed Teammates, a "playable generative AI research project" featuring AI-powered NPCs capable of dynamically interacting with the player. Teammates was an evolution of an earlier experiment dubbed Neo NPCs, and it's easy to see how it could be implemented in future Ubisoft games, especially its sprawling open world affairs.

But Ubisoft's "accelerated investments" in gen AI come at a time when studios are facing pressure to move away from the tech. When Larian revealed last month it is experimenting with AI, the blowback was so severe that the studio had to host a damage control Reddit AMA all about it. Arc Raiders' near perfect launch was clouded by its implementation of gen AI.

Attitudes towards gen AI will undoubtedly keep shifting with time (though it's hard to imagine it'll go the way of NFTs, which Ubisoft also embraced), but if Ubisoft announced Far Cry AI right now it's fair to say the backlash would be enormous.

Still, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot seems extremely enthused by the tech, claiming last year that it's "as big a revolution for our industry as the shift to 3D."

It's no secret that major studios are struggling to put out successful games. Between increasing development turnarounds, ballooning budgets, cancellations and mass layoffs, the industry is finding it harder to reliably bring projects to conclusion, leading to fewer blockbusters coming out each year.

Various reasons have been aired for these problems, ranging from overeager profit chasing, to mismanagement and the malign influence of private equity, alongside broader market influences like audiences playing fewer new games. But former Assassin's Creed director Alexandre Amancio thinks the problems are more fundamental than these influences. Indeed, he believes they go right to the heart of how gaming's biggest studios are currently structured.

Speaking to GamesIndustry, Amancio, who directed both Assassin's Creed: Unity and Assassin's Creed: Revelations, said that the sheer size of modern development teams makes both sustainability and innovation extremely difficult:

"There's this theory that says whenever humans create something that surpasses a hundred people, it completely changes the dynamic of it. As soon as you surpass that, the ratio of management to people working on the game explodes. You start having a very management-heavy structure: You need to have people to coordinate the people coordinating.

"Something that a lot of AAA studios mistakenly do, or certainly did in the past, is think that you can solve a problem by throwing people at it. But adding people to a problem stagnates the people who were already being efficient on it. It just creates a lot of variable noise.

"So I think the future lies in smaller teams."

Specifically, Amancio believes the industry could solve some of the problems it has by working more like the film industry, where teams are brought together for specific projects rather than being maintained as a consistent studio. "The gaming industry has treated itself as being part of the software industry, but it is kind of a weird hybrid. I think the future lies in taking that learning from the film industry, where you have core teams that are complemented with either outsourcing or with co-dev for specific needs. You get the right crew for the right project at the right time."

To a certain extent, this would simply be making official what the games industry often does anyway. Completed projects are often followed by layoffs at a developer as it reverts to a design phase and attempts to cut its production expenditure. But formalising this would at least allow developers to prepare for such eventualities. A big difference, however, is that film production generally takes weeks, sometimes months, whereas game development takes years, even in its most rapid form, meaning developers have little choice but to put down roots.

Amancio also shared some insights into his work on Assassin's Creed: Unity, which he says he would like to make differently if he could go back now. "When we began making Unity, two games started emerging. One game was a traditional Assassin's Creed game, with the main protagonist carving his path through the French Revolution, but we also wanted to make a co-op game:

"We found a clever way of hiding a character creation system within Assassin's Creed. Instead of having just one blood ancestor in the Animus, it's a database of millions of people, and you're searching for an ancestor. So the more you describe that ancestor, the more it reduces the search until you find a match."

"At one point, we needed to choose to make one game or the other…so we made the decision to make the title that people would most recognise. But somewhere inside of me, I still wish we would've gone for that other one."

If you've somehow managed to avoid Assassin's Creed up to this point and are looking to dive in, (or, as is more likely the case, you're looking to fill a gap in the vast library of historical murder simulators Ubisoft has created since 2007) now might be the time to do so. Ubisoft is running a franchise sale on its stabby depictions of human civilisation, offering impressive discounts on some of the best games in the series, as well as its newest entry at half-price.

The best offers in the franchise sale are, jointly, Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Both games are available for 90% off, bringing the price of each down to $6 (£5) apiece. If you have to choose between them, Valhalla is the larger and more comprehensive game of the two, featuring numerous systems and ideas that don't appear in Origins.

That said, Origins arguably has the more interesting setting and story. While Valhalla does impressive work with dark age England, and raiding Monasteries with your Viking horde is tremendous fun, it's hard to compete with exploring the Great Pyramids in Roman-occupied Egypt.

After those, the next best deal is probably for Assassin's Creed: Odyssey at $9 (£7.49). Odyssey is properly massive, letting you explore the whole of Ancient Greece, fight in the Peloponnesian War, and even do battle with Medusa and the Minotaur. I do think it spreads its systems quite thin compared to Valhalla and Origins. But really, the main separator here is that it is just slightly more expensive.

If you want to see what Assassin's Creed has been up to most recently, then Assassin's Creed Shadows is half-price at $35 (£30). In many ways, Shadows is the ultimate Assassin's Creed game. Not only does it take place in feudal Japan, arguably the most coveted setting in the series, but it also features the most sophisticated stealth of any Assassin's Creed game (i.e. stealth that works). If you've never played an Assassin's Creed game before, this is probably the one to pick up provided you can afford it.

If you're interested in exploring the series' back catalogue, then the best deal among the older games is probably for Assassin's Creed: Unity, which is 85% off at $4.50 (£3.89). While Unity was famously derided at launch due to an abundance of technical issues, it is actually a great Assassin's Creed game, with a fantastic setting of revolutionary Paris, and an underrated story and characters. It's also probably the easiest older Assassin's Creed to return to today, partly because it still looks astonishing 11 years on.

Elsewhere, Assassin's Creed: Black Flag is 70% off at $12 (£10.19). This is probably the best of the old Assassin's Creeds, thanks to its excellent pirate ship sailing. If simulated piracy is what you're after though, you might be better off grabbing Assassin's Creed: Rogue, which is the same game mechanically, but is also a lot cheaper, down 85% at $3 (£2.54).

Finally, Assassin's Creed 2 is also reasonably cheap at $5 (£2.14). Personally, I'd recommend spending a little extra for one of the newer games. But if you want to experience the point at which the series became good, this represents a cheap way to do that.

While we're hardly short on Assassin's Creed games at this point. It's all but certain we'll see more from the series in the coming years. The latest reports suggest that Shadows is over-performing financially, and Ubisoft has reportedly begun work on the next Assassin's Creed game already.

There's also a heavily rumoured remake of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag, which has leaked more often than a cannon-blasted pirate ship. And let's not forget Assassin's Creed Hexe which is supposedly set in the Holy Roman Empire and is being codirected by Watch Dogs: Legion director Clint Hocking.

I'm at the point now where I can't honestly say without checking whether the Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remake has been officially revealed or not. It's happening, obviously, but has Ubisoft actually said so? Apparently it has not—yes, I checked—but it has, as PC Gamer wordsmith Joshua Wolens put it in September, reached "unprecedented levels of leaked." Yet somehow, it now is even more leaked.

The latest leakage comes by way of PEGI, the Pan European Game Information agency, which has helpfully provided an 18 rating for something called Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. There's little more to be gleaned from the rating at this point, except that the game has violence, bad language, and in-game purchases.

I've reached out to Ubisoft for comment, because as far as I know it has continued to steadfastly refuse that any of this is happening. And while I typically cast such requests into the ether with no real hope that my existence will even be acknowledged, much less responded to, in this case I feel like maybe Ubisoft is ready to throw up its hands and finally cop to the whole thing.

Just consider what's happened over the past six months alone:

• Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake is such a badly kept secret it's been leaked by a statue maker who just assumed we all knew it was coming
• Ubisoft can't button its yap about the not-so-secret Black Flag remake—now Edward Kenway's voice actor is telling AC4 fans 'You might have to beat it again'
• Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag actor says Ubisoft threatened to sue him for blabbing about the remake that everyone and their grandma knows is coming (That one's not really a leak, but if you're yelling at a guy to shut the hell up about the leak, well, you might have a leak.)
• Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake reaches unprecedented levels of leaked, despite Ubisoft's best efforts to stomp on yapping actors

Unprecedented levels of leaked! But not unsurpassable, it seems.

This latest gaping hole in the hull doesn't necessarily suggest that a release is imminent. There's no sign of Black Flag Resynced on the ESRB or Australian Classification websites, and the leak prior to this one pointed toward a March 2026 launch date, still a few months away.

But it would be nice if Ubisoft would quit horsing around and at least admit that it's happening—although given how it's gone with the Splinter Cell remake that's been twisting in the wind since it was announced four years ago (four goddamn years!), maybe this Circus of Leaks is better. At least we can have some fun with it.

Ubisoft did get back to me on this one, by the way, but it's not ready to raise the white flag just yet: A rep said the company has "nothing to share at this time."

Assassin's Creed Shadows got its first expansion in September: Claws of Awaji. Bringing a new region, new storyline, and new icons to sprawl your objective board out even further, it was a meaty chunk of game in the vein of AC DLCs that went before it—Wrath of the Druids and Siege of Paris for Valhalla, or Fate of Atlantis and Legacy of the First Blade for Odyssey.

Those of you hip to pattern recognition might note that those predecessor games seemed to get multiple expansions (Origins, likewise, got multiple), but it seems that won't be the case for Shadows. In a chat with JorRaptor (via IGN), the game's associate director Simon Lemay-Comtois said that, "at this moment for Year Two, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned, currently." Which is a tad surprising, given Ubisoft's recent statement that the game is "Overperforming" against its expectations.

I think the wording here is worth bearing in mind. Ubi's got no mondo-size expansions in the pipe, but Lemay-Comtois notes that "We're still working on content for post-launch, and supporting it," so it's not quite as though the game is just being dropped. Still, many moons ago—before the game's release—Shadows did have a season pass planned. It was eventually scrapped, but it seems that this move not to release an additional expansion is a volte-face both from previous games in the series and from Ubisoft's original plans.

"Any content we want to do in Year Two will probably be more sparse," says Lemay-Comtois. "I'm not announcing anything at this point, but the strategy for year one was to be quick and reactive, so it means smaller drops, often.

"For year two, okay, we've got a handle. We don't need to put fires out or anything, so it's more like, 'Okay, what good chunky little piece of meat we can drop and have people come back to it and enjoy it? … Not to the size of an expansion, but something like Yesterday's Update Plus."

Honestly? Suits me. I still haven't played Claws of Awaji. Hell, I still haven't beaten AC Shadows, despite having tens of hours in it. It has the same disease of all modern AC games—it's just too damn big to hold my attention.

Another expansion with another region would just make me feel even more fatigued than I already do. Some smaller updates, tweaks and changes to the game as a whole? Well, I don't know that they'll reinvigorate my passion for the game, but they stand a much better chance of pulling me back in.

Desmond Miles? Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time. Assassin's Creed's original protagonist stood at the centre of the series' story from the 2007 original to Assassin's Creed 3. I remember him being pretty roundly mocked at the time, and wasn't much of a fan myself. This was partly because players only controlled him during the series' divisive Animus sections, where the games would yank you of their gripping historical settings to wander around sterile laboratories while NPCs yammered exposition at you.

But it was also because poor Desmond had all the charisma of a boiled cauliflower. This despite being voiced by Nolan North, best known for playing Uncharted's effortlessly charming thief Nathan Drake. Ubisoft tried to spice up Desmond's adventures in later games, but never really achieved this, ultimately opting to bump off Desmond in Assassin's Creed 3. Apparently, this came as a surprise to North, who didn't find out that Desmond was dead until a fan told him on Twitter.

Speaking on the Fall Damage YouTube channel (via GamesRadar), North was quizzed about some of the most famous lines he's voiced across his career. When Desmond's final line from Assassin's Creed 3 came up, North recognised it instantly. "That technically was Desmond's death scene," North explained, adding. "And I didn't know it."

North reveals that Ubisoft neglected to inform him that Desmond was dead. Instead, he found out "on Twitter" after a fan messaged him with "Are you upset Desmond's dead?" Needless to say, North was shocked. "And I'm thinking 'what'?" he said. "There's nothing that you'd expect [there] from a main character's death."

It's not wholly clear what North meant by this. The scene in which Desmond dies makes it pretty clear that he's dead. Maybe he just wasn't all that keen on how Ubisoft approached it. As he explained in the video, he also expected to play Desmond for considerably longer: "I think the original idea was eight or nine games with Desmond."

Meaning no disrespect to North's considerable talents, such a notion puts a shiver down my spine. Not that Assassin's Creed's modern day segments have been improved by Desmond's absence. In fact, Ubisoft's handling of the modern day storyline in subsequent games has led to some revisionism around his character. I was surprised to see so many people saying the series died with Desmond in the death-scene video's comments, which really goes to show how badly Ubisoft has bungled things since.

It is possible this could happen. As North noted in the video, Desmond is not "technically dead" thanks to yet more plot shenanigans on Ubisoft's part that reveal themselves in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. But North has yet to reprise his role as the character. "As it so often goes in the entertainment industry, different developers, different creative directors come in, and they have their own way of continuing the story," he explained in the video.

North concluded the segment by saying he was "very sad" to step away from playing Desmond, as "Assassin's Creed is one of my favourite stories that I've ever been a part of." Which…really? I like a lot of things about Assassin's Creed, and it has featured some endearing characters over the years. But let's face it, the story has been hokum since day one.

Maybe he was just being nice. Or maybe Assassin's Creed's Gordian plot is secretly brilliant in a manner that's gone completely over my head for nearly twenty years. Either way, Assassin's Creed's story hasn't hindered it from being successful in any way. Ubisoft's historical murder series from being successful. Assassin's Creed Shadows released earlier this year to a generally favourable response, with Morgan Park calling it "some of the most fun I've had with a stealth game in a decade" in PC Gamer's Assassin's Creed Shadows review. That said, he did criticise the "disjointed main story" and "bland cast" of characters. Smells like vindication to me.

Remember the Assassin's Creed: Shadows controversy? I barely do. If you listened to a very particular crowd back when it was revealed the game would feature Yasuke, a real historical figure who's been referenced a whole bunch in Japanese media anyway, you'd have thought it was the end of days. Initially, Ubisoft tried to mollify said crowd, calm them down which… Well, it went about as well as you'd expect.

The sky didn't fall. What actually happened was that the game sold pretty well as an entertaining open world romp, and we all moved on with our lives. In other words, Ubisoft made an Ubisoft game. Nothing exploded because a Black samurai was in it. Gaming survived.

Part of why Shadows' release was uneventful was, in part, because of Ubisoft's sudden pivot to, essentially, 'stop feeding the trolls.' Speaking at a BAFTA event last year, former franchise head Marc-Alexis Coté put his foot down:

"When we self-censor in the face of threats, we hand over our power, piece by piece, until freedom and creativity both wither away. We cannot let that happen. It's time for us as creators to stand firm on our commitment to our values, by telling stories that inspire, that challenge and that help people connect. Our silence cannot become complicit."

Coté did, however, recently get slowly encouraged to leave the company, which will go some ways to explain the level of cynicism I'm about to apply to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot incoming words here—which don't necessarily match up to actions taken by Ubisoft in the ensuing months. More on that later.

Guillemot more-or-less agrees in a transcript shared by GameFile of an internal company video that more-or-less goes over this process of inviting the culture warriors to vote with their wallet. Which, as mentioned above, nobody did, so it was all a bunch of (upsetting, racially-charged) hullaballoo.

That's not to say Guillemot is quite as impassioned as Coté was, though he stabs at roughly the same jist: "In September 2024, we had our backs against the wall, and that's when it clicked. To get out of the corner, we had to stop focusing on those who hated us. We had to start firing up our allies. So we stopped trying to win the argument, and leaned on what had carried us for 18 years: The Assassin's Creed brand."

Which, as Guillemot states a little earlier in the video, "quickly eliminated the fights, which were just fake fights."

That pivot included a delay, which Ubisoft took not just as an opportunity to tweak stuff based on internal feedback, but also to ignore the game-is-woke-because-Yasuke crowd more effectively: "We started by doing the last thing anyone would have advised. We delayed the game. The extra time allowed the devs to polish, optimize, and reach the high standards fans expect from an Assassin's Creed game.

"It also gave us time to rebuild the Assassin’s Creed brand pact, putting the markers of the franchise back at the center." Guillemot, somewhat hilariously, classifies this as "more hood, more stealth, more leap of faith, more lore." I, too, love it when things from a videogame like hood and leap of faith are in a videogame. Much lore, big stabs. Yum yum.

Still, Guillemot states, "Fans came back, conversations started shifting, and everyone who built, played, and loved this game could be proud again."

Honestly I'm glad the plan worked, though I'm a smidge cynical of Guillemot, here. Not because he immediately starts talking about how cool the brand is, or how everyone wants more hood and stealth and lore in their Assassin's Creed games, but because Ubisoft also reportedly cancelled a whole planned Civil War-era game where you went up against the Ku Klux Klan due to the US political climate. And then there's the Coté thing.

There are actions Ubisoft also might've just done so for financial reasons—but it's probably a good reminder that Ubisoft's 'Operation: Stop listening to the racists' wasn't done entirely out of the goodness of its heart: It just happens that not feeding the trolls is the most effective way to, well, starve them.

Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin's Creed boss Marc-Alexis Côté has left Ubisoft after more than 20 years at the company, a stretch that saw him climb from a software engineer on PSP games to vice president and executive producer of the Assassin's Creed franchise. Côté's departure, initially reported by IGN, comes just two weeks after Ubisoft unveiled a new subsidiary called Vantage Studios that will be responsible for all future development of Assassin's Creed, as well as Far Cry and Rainbow Six.

"Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft," a Ubisoft representative said in a statement provided to PC Gamer.

"While we are saddened to see him go, we're confident that our talented teams will carry forward the strong foundation he helped build. We are deeply grateful for the impact Marc-Alexis has had over the years, particularly in shaping the Assassin's Creed brand into what it is today. His leadership, creativity, and dedication have left a lasting mark on our teams and our players. We thank him sincerely for his many contributions and wish him continued success in all his future endeavors."

Côté has a long history with the Assassin's Creed series, going back to a design credit on Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood in 2010. He oversaw a resurgence of the series as executive producer beginning with Assassin's Creed Odyssey in 2018.

Maybe more importantly, he was also a strong defender of Assassin's Creed developers in the face of backlash against the inclusion of Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows: It was Côté who called out Elon Musk in June 2024 for "feeding hatred" with his attacks on the game, and in November of the same year Coté pushed back more broadly on "attacks driven by intolerance," a position that stood in sharp contrast to the milquetoast response from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.

The IGN report says Côté was offered a role at Vantage Studios, but opted to depart instead. Vantage Studios co-CEO Christophe Derennes said in an internal memo to staff that he was "disappointed" by the decision.

There's no indicated connection between the launch of Vantage and Côté's decision to leave, but the timing is, well awkward: It's been only seven months since the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows, a major and much-needed success for Ubisoft which should by rights be something of a moment of triumph; but it's also been just two weeks since the debut of Vantage Studios, the Tencent-backed "creative house" that's now responsible for the "development and expansion" of the Assassin's Creed brand. Vantage Studios is being led by Ubisoft veteran Christophe Derennes, who's been with the company for more than 35 years, and Charlie Guillemot, who comes to the job with extensive experience in being the son of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.

The surprise Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC announced by Ubisoft in August will go live on November 18, adding a new main quest, sidequests, assassination targets, and other new content in the ancient valley of AlUla, a place Ubi calls "charged with history and home to stunning and diverse landscapes."

Assassin's Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory will add an additional six hours of gameplay, Ubisoft said, that takes place ahead of the finale of the core game when Basim discovers that his long-lost father might still be alive in AlUla. Off he goes to the (potential) rescue, as one does, "only to discover that the valley of AlUla is threatened by a dangerous band of robbers and his father is missing."

"You will have the chance to explore a variety of points of interest in the region, from the old town of AlUla and the Musa Ibn Musayr fortress to the Valley of the Stones and the impressive necropolis of Hegra," Ubisoft said. "Be careful as you explore the sites, as the Robbers have set up ambushes across the desert to catch unwelcome visitors."

You may recall this DLC as the one reportedly being funded by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which is presumably what enables such a big, beefy DLC to be released for free two years after the game's debut. That didn't sit well with at least some Ubisoft employees because of the country's well-documented record of human rights abuses, in particular the murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, widely believed to have been carried out on the orders of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Ubisoft declined to comment at the time on whether the PIF—which is headed by bin Salman—fully funded development of the DLC, but we got a closer look at possible connections in today's reveal stream. Among the featured speakers is Dr. Abdulrahman Alsuhaibani, the VP of culture at the Royal Commission for AlUla in the real world.

In a message posted to LinkedIn last week, Alsuhaibani said he recently participated in a panel called "Capitalizing on Heritage—Turning Cultural Icons into Economic Powerhouses" at Saudi Arabia's first Cultural Investment Conference, which focused largely on the country's plans for AlUla, where the new Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC takes place.

"My message was clear: heritage is a living asset, not just a preserved past, but a driver of economic, social and cultural value," Alsuhaibani wrote. "AlUla is demonstrating this in practice. From the regeneration of Old Town to adaptive reuse projects like Chedi Hegra, we are showing how heritage can stimulate the creative economy, attract global visitors, foster cultural dialogue and enable meaningful livelihoods.

Alsuhaibani said a new agreement with the country's Ministry of Culture was announced at the conference, which "will grow AlUla’s creative economy by positioning AlUla as a global film hub, supporting cultural entrepreneurs and SMEs with enabling solutions and expanding pathways for the skilled artisans of Madrasat Addeera," the first school for girls in AlUla.

Using popular media to export cultural hegemony is nothing new: The Americans have been doing it for generations, so as far as that goes I really can't hold it against the Saudis. But Alsuhaibani's message does point pretty clearly to bin Salman's participation in the project. The "principal partner" of the Cultural Investment Conference is Saudi Arabia's Cultural Development Fund, part of the country's National Development Fund—which, you probably guessed, is chaired by bin Salman.

For my money, that's what makes this DLC interesting. Saudi Arabia is a common target for complaints of "sportswashing"—using the popularity of videogames to cover up or distract from allegations of human rights abuses, just as it has with professional sports leagues and fading comedians—and it hasn't denied them. In fact, bin Salman said in 2023 that "if sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by way of one percent, then I will continue doing sportswashing. I don't care."

But that sort of thing has been fairly overt in the past, as seen in the PIF's multitude of investments in or acquisitions of major game studios, most recently and famously the $55 billion takeover of Electronic Arts. The Valley of Memory DLC is far more subtle, developed and released entirely by Ubisoft, with no officially confirmed connections to any Saudi government agency—just a real solid for Assassin's Creed fans that happens to be about that place Saudi Arabia wants to turn into the next big money thing, right? That doesn't necessarily make it sinister, but I suspect we're going to start asking "why does this exist?" with increasing regularity as gameswashing becomes a more common source of funding.

In a surprise announcement last month, Ubisoft revealed that 2023's Assassin's Creed Mirage would be receiving a hefty free DLC. A new map and quests for a two year-old game, and no charge? Such largesse is only possible thanks to the involvement of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has made many gaming investments as part of its mission to detoxify the image of the brutal petrol state.

The DLC will see Basim, Mirage's protagonist, visiting AlUla, an ancient city key to Saudi Arabian culture. It was also announced by Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot in Riyadh at the New Global Sport Conference, an event that ran alongside the Saudi-funded Esports World Cup.

"We are working with AlUla, which is a UNESCO site, which is not known yet very much," Guillemote said at the time. "But we are creating content that will be given for free to players that play Mirage, and they will be able to go in that site.

As to the question of whether the DLC is being fully funded by the PIF, Ubisoft says it does "not comment on rumours."

It appears that Ubisoft staff are not particularly happy about the publisher getting into bed with the Saudis. In an internal Q&A first published by GameFile, one employee came right out and asked: is partnering up with Saudi Arabia, specifically in the context of the murder and subsequent dismemberment of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, really worth the hit to the company's image?

The response is uninspiring. Guillemot's visit was as part of a French delegation, including president Emmanuel Macron, and was described as a "classic diplomatic tool for expanding France's influence and reach around the world" that would help spread its values. I'm not sure that such contemporary values would necessarily include the French revolution's darker excesses but hey… plus ça change.

Ubisoft also says, somewhat unconvincingly, that Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman and the PIF are different things. "The latter's money is not MBS's, and talking with partners who do not share our democratic values ​​does not mean abandoning them," says the publisher. The PIF is controlled by the crown prince, so not sure I'm buying that one.

Ubisoft has subsequently sought to emphasise that it retains "creative control," telling IGN the DLC was "made possible thanks to the support of local and international organisations [...] through access to experts, historians and resources to ensure the creation of an authentic and accurate setting." And those bags of cash in the corner? Forget about it. And have you tried these canapes?