Ubisoft Staff Reportedly Raised Concerns About Saudi Arabia Deal for Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC, as Company Insists it Maintains Creative Control

Ubisoft employees person raised concerns astir the company's concern with Saudi Arabia to make caller Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC, a caller study has revealed.

The upcoming contented was archetypal reported connected backmost successful January by a French fiscal newspaper, Les Echoes, which stated that the DLC had received backing from Saudi Arabia's arguable Public Investment Fund (PIF). Ubisoft did not respond to maine erstwhile asked for remark connected that study astatine the time.

Months later, Ubisoft softly announced the DLC itself successful precocious August, successful a societal media station sent retired aboriginal 1 Saturday morning. The little uncover confirmed that the add-on would spot Mirage leader Basim visiting AlUla, an past tract that's present 1 of Saudi Arabia's taste highlights.

In an interior Q&A shared with Ubisoft unit and published by GameFile, an worker asked if absorption believed partnering with Saudi Arabia, specifically pursuing the sidesplitting and dismemberment of Washington Post writer Jamal Khashoggi, would tarnish the company's image.

Management responded by addressing the information that Guillemot had precocious visited Saudi Arabia arsenic portion of a delegation alongside French president Emmanual Macron, but dismissed this arsenic a "classic diplomatic instrumentality for expanding France's power and scope astir the world" that would assistance disseminate the country's values.

As for the origins of the DLC, the absorption effect to the query simply stated Ubisoft did "not remark connected rumors."

Ubisoft absorption besides attempted to gully a favoritism betwixt the country's person and president of the PIF, Saudi crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman, and the PIF itself. "The latter's wealth is not MBS's, and talking with partners who bash not stock our antiauthoritarian values ​​does not mean abandoning them," the company's effect reads.

GameFile reports that Guillemot visited Saudi Arabia again past period to talk astatine the New Global Sport Conference and denote Mirage's AlUla DLC astatine the lawsuit (something which besides explains the antithetic timing of the quality being made nationalist astatine the aforesaid time, albeit with nary notation of Guillemot's speech).

"We are moving with AlUla, which is simply a UNESCO site, which is not known yet precise much," Guillemote said, announcing the DLC astatine the Saudi event. "But we are creating contented that volition beryllium fixed for escaped to players that play Mirage, and they volition beryllium capable to spell successful that site.

"As you tin see, they volition beryllium capable to play there, to person a communicative successful this environment. I americium definite they volition emotion this region, conscionable besides due to the fact that it has been done with specialists [of] archaeology, truly radical that cognize what happened past and wherefore it was truthful important."

IGN precocious asked Ubisoft for much item connected the substance and was told that, arsenic with each Assassin's Creed game, it had originative power connected the projected content. This rubric update to Assassin’s Creed Mirage was "made imaginable acknowledgment to the enactment of section and planetary organisations," Ubisoft added, "through entree to experts, historians and resources to guarantee the instauration of an authentic and close setting."

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You tin scope Tom astatine [email protected] oregon find him connected Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social