Assassin's Creed Mirage Hits Steam This Month

ign.com:

Assassin’s Creed Mirage launches on Steam later in October, Ubisoft has announced.

Mirage's Steam release comes a year after it launched exclusively on the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft Connect on PC, as well as PlayStation and Xbox.

Ubisoft recently ditched its policy of signing with Epic for PC exclusivity and will now return to day-one releases on Steam following the poor performance of Star Wars Outlaws, which also skipped Steam at launch. Outlaws itself releases on Steam on November 21, 2024.

Mirage is the well-received back-to-basics Assassin’s Creed game that focuses more on the series’ stealthy origins. You play Basim, a cunning street thief who navigates the bustling streets of ninth-century Baghdad. Mirage is also shorter than recent Assassin’s Creed games — in stark contrast to recent entries Valhalla and Odyssey, which had massive open worlds that would take dozens of hours to explore. IGN’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage review returned an 8/10.

Soon after its launch, Ubisoft said Mirage's player count was "in line" with Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey’s launch numbers. The company added that Mirage was the biggest new-generation launch game in terms of unit sales in Ubisoft's history.

Mirage’s Steam launch comes amid a tumultuous year for the company that’s seen disappointing returns from Call of Duty competitor XDefiant and the aforementioned Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows into 2025 following the poor sales of Outlaws, and its staff have arranged a strike for later this month.

In its recent note to investors, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot acknowledged that the company's "second quarter fell short of expectations" and vowed to launch "a review aimed at further improving our execution." He also addressed some of the cultural conversations happening around the company lately, which have intensified around Star Wars Outlaws and the upcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Last week, Ubisoft’s founding Guillemot family and shareholder Tencent