Leaked Assassin's Creed: Origins image points to ancient Egyptian adventure

WWG reported last week on a rumor that the next Assassin's Creed game, set to be revealed at E3, will be called "Origins," and will be built around a "vast open world experience" set in ancient Egypt. That rumor has now been strengthened by the appearance of an image on Reddit depicting a character on a boat, armed with a bow, arrows, and shield, pursuing a mission called "Assassinate the Crocodile"—and which Eurogamer claims has been verified by three separate sources as a legitimate AC: Origins screenshot.

The image indicates that the player must "follow Shadya to Khenut's Villa," possibly (probably?) a reference to an Egyptian Queen of the Fifth Dynasty, wife of King Unas, and possibly the mother of Queen Iput I. The relative lack of historical information about Khenut could be a way for Ubisoft to ground the game believably in ancient Egyptian society, without having to tie itself down too tightly to a particular real-world narrative.

The timing is right—E3 is just a month away, so this is when you'd naturally expect things to start leaking—and the report also jibes with our January breakdown of everything we think we know about the next Assassin's Creed game: That it will be set in Egypt, that the game world will be much bigger and more open than previous games, and—this is the big one—that boats will be back in all their Black Flag-style glory. (And horses, too, but let's face it, the nags are always in there and boats are where it's at.)

I've emailed Ubisoft for confirmation that the image is legit. Given the proximity to E3, when the game is expected to be properly revealed to the world, I don't imagine it'll want to drop the dime now, but I'll let you know if it happens.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.