After months of waiting to see the highly anticipated title in action, some gamers were left disappointed when the debut gameplay trailer for Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage revealed the title to seemingly be plagued by performance problems. Although many viewers praised the throwback action showcased throughout Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s eight-minute gameplay trailer, the game’s sometimes-struggling framerate left an underwhelming first impression. Ubisoft’s decision to show off the game in this state has already led to backlash from some fans and echoes the similarly ill-advised early reveal of Eidos-Montreal and Square Enix’s Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
Although the release of Assassin’s Creed Mirage is still several months away, hopefully giving the developers time to address the performance problems highlighted by the demo, Ubisoft may be following Eidos-Montreal’s early missteps with the Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy gameplay demo by showing off the title before it’s truly ready for the spotlight. And with so much riding on the success of this long-awaited return to the series’ roots, Ubisoft has precious little room for mistakes in the marketing for Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
Ubisoft Is Following in Marvel’s Early Missteps
The first glimpse of gameplay for Assassin’s Creed Mirage has revealed a less-than-polished product only months ahead of its release, drawing comparisons to the much-maligned gameplay debut trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. Eidos-Montreal took complaints about the rough state of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy’s gameplay reveal to heart over the subsequent months, though, resolving the performance problems from the trailer and eventually releasing what many players consider to be one of the most unique Marvel games to date.
Much like Eidos-Montreal took the time to fix problems with Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy after an underwhelming response to its gameplay reveal trailer, Ubisoft needs to do the same with Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Despite the excitement from many players over what’s been touted as a back-to-basics approach to gameplay for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the uneven framerate and sometimes-jerky animations visible throughout the trailer left a bad first impression for many potential purchasers. And with the title being positioned as both a return to form and a new evolution of the beloved franchise, Ubisoft can’t afford for Assassin’s Creed Mirage to fail.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Can’t Afford to Feel Like a Rush Job
After years of titles featuring increasingly padded-out runtimes and gameplay that often strayed far from the series’ roots, Ubisoft has promised that this latest outing will be a return to form for Assassin’s Creed. With many fans of the franchise who’d been turned off by its well-made but increasingly lengthy latest entries expressing excitement about this back-to-basics approach, Ubisoft can’t afford for Assassin’s Creed Mirage to feel like a rushed or, worse yet, unfinished title when it releases.
The potential benefits to Ubisoft from Assassin’s Creed Mirage go far beyond just the profits from that singular title. If successful, Assassin’s Creed Mirage opens the door to a second revenue stream for Ubisoft apart from the mainline franchise, focused on smaller, shorter Assassin’s Creed titles. If technical problems leave gamers with a bad first impression of this throwback approach to gameplay it could spell doom for similar titles moving forward, meaning that Ubisoft needs to ensure that everything from the combat to the parkour in Assassin’s Creed Mirage is up to par when the game is released.
With several months left before its release, there is still plenty of time for Ubisoft to address the technical problems visible throughout Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s gameplay debut trailer. If it can follow Eidos-Montreal's lead and deliver the last-minute polish players are hoping for, then any concerns about its quality should be resolved come October. If not, it may take far more than a day-one release of Assassin’s Creed Mirage on Ubisoft+ to make the game a hit.
Assassin's Creed Mirage launches October 12 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
