Assassin’s Creed Mirage Will Be Ubisoft’s First “Adult Only” Game

[UPDATE}: A representative for Ubisoft told SegmentNext that this was an error and said that the rating is really pending and not yet official. Mirage product pages need to be updated shortly to reflect this.

Following the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Mirage during Ubisoft Forward, some store pages mistakenly displayed the game for preorders with an Adults Only ESRB rating. While Assassin’s Creed Mirage is still pending rating, Ubisoft wants to reassure players that no real gambling or lootboxes are present in the game,”

-Spokesperson

The reference of “Real Gambling” in the game’s age rating has people worried in the wake of the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Mirage at Ubisoft Forward.

Five new titles from the storied open-world series were unveiled during the Ubisoft Forward event on September 10. Games like Codename Hexe and Codename Jade will take place in the 16th century and 215 BCE, respectively, in Ancient China.

Codename Red will bring the series to Japan for the first time, and Assassin’s Creed: Mirage will bring Basim Ibn Ishaq back to the series.

Despite the anticipation around Mirage’s return to the franchise’s origins, gamers have raised their concerns about the title due to references to “Real Gambling” found in the game’s 18+ ESRB rating.

Simulated gambling is permitted from rating T and up, however real gambling is only permitted from grade AO and up, according to the ESRB Rating Guide. Let’s say we adhere to the listing and think the rating is reliable. The marketing team can be subject to a lot of limitations as a result.

ResetEra users modiz and deanna_beanna brought to light the reasons for Mirage’s classification on the Xbox Store, which are listed as the following: “Intense Violence, Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Partial Nudity, Real Gambling.”

Modiz explained that “the AO rating seems to come from the Real Gambling warning, which is defined by the ESRB as ‘Player can gamble, including betting or wagering real cash or currency’.”

The ResetEra user continued, adding “as opposed to Simulated Gambling which is defined by ‘Player can gamble without betting or wagering real cash or currency’.

It is likely that this rating is a provisional one of what the publisher expects the game to be rated as, but I don’t think I have even heard of an AO rated game in many years,” 

-Modiz

The future direction of Ubisoft’s upcoming game will only become clear with time. Assassin’s Creed: Mirage will debut for PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and Amazon Luna at some point in 2023.