Assassin's Creed Mirage AO Rating Was A Mistake, Ubisoft Says

Following the announcement of Assassin's Creed Mirage during Ubisoft Forward, fans discovered that the game's Xbox.com product page listed an Adults Only (AO) rating for the game.

A spokesperson for Ubisoft confirmed to SegmentNext that this was a mistake, further clarifying that the rating is actually pending and not final yet. Product pages for Mirage should be updated to reflect this soon.

"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," a spokesperson for Ubisoft told GameSpot.

The AO rating is the highest rating from North America's ESRB, and it is very rare. The Xbox.com product page for Mirage, which remains live, says the game will have "intense violence, blood and gore, sexual themes, partial nudity, and real gambling," along with in-game purchases.

The ESRB's online database does not contain an entry for Mirage yet, which is no surprise given the game is still some time off from its release in 2023. No previous Assassin's Creed game received an AO rating from the ESRB, with most entries in the mainline series picking up Mature (M) ratings.

The Ubisoft Forward video broadcast event itself began with a flash of an AO rating, but whether or not this pertained specifically to Mirage is unknown.

Mirage follows the story of Basim, a street thief in ninth-century Baghdad. The game is described as a "tightly crafted, narrative-driven action-adventure experience."

Mirage was one of several new Assassin's Creed games announced during Ubisoft Forward. Some of the others included a new Assassin's Creed game set in Japan in the works under the codename Project Red, as well as a more mysterious project known only as Hexe. Ubisoft also confirmed it is "looking into" releasing a standalone multiplayer "experience" within Assassin's Creed Infinity. Then there is a new Assassin's Creed game coming to Netflix Games.

For more, check out GameSpot's breakdown of the biggest games and announcements from Ubisoft Forward.