Assassin’s Creed Mirage Officially Announced, Reveal Next Week

Update 9:05am: Ubisoft has officially unveiled Assassin's Creed Mirage following the leak earlier today. Announced on the franchise's official Twitter (below), Ubisoft also confirmed that more information would arrive at its Ubisoft Forward showcase next week.

A new image of the game was also revealed, showing presumably the protagonist (rumoured to be Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Basim) dropping in for, you guessed it, an assassination.

Ubisoft Forward begins on September 10 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UK (so 5am on September 11 AEST).

Original Story: An image from the long-rumoured new Assassin's Creed game, supposedly titled Assassin's Creed Mirage, appears to have leaked online.

As reported by Eurogamer, a now-deleted tweet from Assassin's Creed fan website The Codex Network shared artwork of the new assassin that allegedly leaked from Ubisoft's own store.

The image shows an assassin in the series' iconic white robes facing off against something wielding a sword, though only a shadow of the enemy is shown. One version of the art teases 'The Forty Thieves Quest', which would seem to point to this image being a part of a pre-order bonus or similar.

The assassin appears to be Basim - a character from Assassin's Creed Valhalla - helped by the blue and red sleeves and also the sword, which appears to be an exact match. This matches previous rumours that Basim would be the protagonist of an expansion turned standalone game that is expected to be released this year.

While nothing is confirmed, Ubisoft is hosting a multi-game showcase called Ubisoft Forward next week on September 10, where it will likely fully reveal the new Assassin's Creed. According to previous rumours, this game will be "smaller in scope" and instead focus on more dedicated stealth sections than a sprawling open world akin to previous entries Valhalla or Odyssey.

Ubisoft is also working on a title called Assassin's Creed Infinity, which is set to be a Fortnite-like evolving platform featuring multiple games, characters, and missions from the franchise's 15-year history.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

AirportSim’s 3 Game Modes Let You Live Life as an Airport Ground Crew Member

Sure, Microsoft Flight Simulator did a great job of simulating life in the cockpit of a myriad of real-world planes at 30,000 feet up. But what about the other half of that equation? AirportSim, an Xbox Series X|S console exclusive due out next year (it's also coming to PC at the same time), aims to show you what life is like for the ground crew who are so essential to any and all air travel.

The new trailer for AirportSim, which you can watch at the top of this page (with screenshots to click through below), shows off the three main game modes: Free Roam, Scenario, and Challenge. Each showcases life as a vital ground crew member at one of many real-life airports. You'll drive the baggage cart, refuel the plane in freezing temperatures, and much more.

AirportSim features dynamic real-time and real-world weather, real aircraft like the Boeing 737 MAX and Airbus A320 NEO, online and local co-op, and more.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Twitter Is Finally Testing an Edit Button

Yes, it is happening: Twitter is testing a feature that will allow you to edit your tweets.

In a recent blog post, Twitter confirmed that the Edit Tweet feature is currently undergoing "internal testing." Once the testing has concluded, the Edit Tweet feature will roll out to Twitter Blue subscribers later this month, just as Twitter noted earlier this year.

A tweet from the company today confirmed that the feature is now in use on the site:

Twitter notes that users can edit tweets a few times but only within 30 minutes after the tweet has been published. Based on the image Twitter shared, which you can view below, it appears the Edit Tweet feature will disclose when a tweet has been altered, along with an edit history.

"Edited Tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp, and label so it's clear to readers that the original Tweet has been modified," the blog post notes.

Twitter finally testing an Edit Tweets feature has been a long time coming. Twitter's VP of consumer product Jay Sullivan noted earlier this year that the ability to edit tweets had been "the most requested Twitter feature for many years." Former CEO Jack Dorsey was reluctant to add the feature in the past, even going as far as saying in 2020 that Twitter would "probably never" add the feature.

The inclusion of an edit tweet feature seemed more realistic in April when Elon Musk became the largest shareholder of Twitter. And a day later, Musk went to the platform to send out a poll on whether or not users wanted an edit button.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Second Developer in a Week Calls Out Publisher PQube

AeternoBlade II developer Corecell has called out publisher PQube for not paying out the entire minimum guarantee in the game’s publishing agreement. It's the second developer to draw attention to the publisher in a week.

“PQube has published AeternoBlade II on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in Europe since October 2019 under a publishing agreement with us and agreed to pay a minimum guarantee to us, “ Corecell says in a statement on Twitter (below). “However, PQube only paid a small part of the minimum guarantee of the signing milestone by the time we sent them the game and they never paid the remaining milestones.”

Corecell claims that it tried to resolve the situation with PQube amicably, but both parties could not reach a solution. The developer seemingly decided to terminate the publishing deal back in September 2020. However, Corecell also claims that PQube refuses to relinquish publishing rights back for the AeternoBlade II on console, and continues to sell it on multiple platforms, thus recouping all of the revenue from the game in Europe.

Corecell claims that PQube offered to give console publishing rights back, but only if the developer kept this situation privately under wraps. “We knew something was not right, but as a small independent developer, we could not afford to pay legal fees to fight the case in another country,” says Corecell.

The developer says it has also contacted Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft about taking AeternoBlade II off of digital stores in Europe, with only Nintendo and Sony complying.

Corecell says it still wants to work on the action-puzzle game by pushing out patches and new content updates, but the developer says that it had to pick up additional work elsewhere in order to recover financially due to not receiving any revenue from the game’s sales in Europe during the past 3 years.

IGN has reached out to PQube for comment.

This is the second time PQube has come under fire for its publishing deals in the last week. Toge Productions issued a statement about its own publishing deal with PQube on A Space for the Unbound. Toge alleges that PQube withheld funds delivered by a diversity grant from the Indonesian developer, and instead used them to leverage a higher revenue share against them. It has since delayed the game indefinitely.

Last week, PQube told IGN that it has fully honoured its publishing agreement and that Toge Productions has tried to enforce unreasonable revised terms.

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Rick and Morty Showrunner Promises a New Season ‘Every Year’ From Now On

Rick and Morty showrunner Scott Marder has promised to release a new season of Adult Swim's award-winning animated series "every year" from this point onwards.

Ahead of the imminent release of Rick and Morty's sixth season, Marder and producer James Siciliano sat down with Inverse to discuss their future plans for the hit animated series. The duo shared their vision for Season 6 and beyond, revealing that they already have two more seasons in various stages of development as they plan to get more consistent with their releases from now on.

"There's an unbelievable amount that we have going on," Siciliano admitted. "I don't know how much we could talk about, but as far as the production, we have Season 6 coming out, and Season 7 in production. We have the writers' room for Season 8 going. So that's about 20 episodes in some form of production, and the new season that we're breaking."

Marder concurred by saying, "I've created a high-class problem for us, but we'll have a season of the show every year from this point forward."

The team behind the popular animated series have already started to deliver on this promise as Rick and Morty's sixth season is set to debut on September 4, just one year on from Season 5's two-part finale. This has not always been the case, though. The show's third and fourth seasons had a particularly large gap between them, with more than two years elapsing before any new episodes aired.

Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland previously reflected on the animated comedy's past seasons and admitted that the show is "finally back into the rhythm" heading into the sixth season.

"I will say that it's a bit more canonical," Roiland told IGN at SDCC, though he said there will also be a good "point of entry" episode. "It really rewards fans of the show that have been watching up to this point... So it's like, I think we're kind of finally back into the rhythm of Rick and Morty, and I think Season 6 is... I didn't particularly think Season 5 was bad, but Season 6 is f*cking amazing. It really is a f*cking quality season."

The fifth season presented fans with Evil Morty and the Evil Morty Plan, The Rick and Morty Citadel, and a good look at what the larger multiverse is doing. IGN called it a "lore-stuffed bookend to one of the strongest seasons thus far," though it chucked canon material at viewers at "a breakneck and sometimes confusing pace," which made the final episodes feel "difficult to follow and decidedly rushed."

The long-awaited sixth season will premiere at 11 pm ET/PT on September 4, picking right up from where we left the anarchic duo at the end of the fifth season. According to the official logline for the new season, Rick and Morty will be "worse for wear and down on their luck," but "will they manage to bounce back for more adventures? Or will they get swept up in an ocean of piss!"

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Tails: The Backbone Preludes Announced

Raw Fury and developer Eggnut have announced Tails: The Backbone preludes, a pixel-art prequel to the noir-narrative adventure game Backbone. Like Backbone, Tails will star anthropomorphic animals solving puzzles and mysteries in a dystopian Vancouver. It will be released on PC (via Steam) next year.

With four playable walking-and-talking animal heroes (Howard, Clarissa, and Renee returning from Backbone, with new character Eli joining the group), Tails promises "branching choices focused on an intertwined series of vignettes about change, circumstance, and consequence." Those choices are tracked (presumably similarly to the recent narrative adventure As Dusk Falls), allowing you to see where you could've taken a different path and encouraging replayability.

Tails also says it'll feature the return of the "doom jazz" soundtrack style from the original game, created here by Danshin. Wishlist Tails: The Backbone Preludes now on Steam.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Halo Infinite Forge Mode Gets November Release Date, But Split-Screen Co-op Cancelled

Halo Infinite is finally getting Forge Mode, launching on November 8, 2022, and the full release of online campaign co-op will now arrive on the same day. Sadly, though, split-screen co-op has been cancelled entirely.

In a new update, developer 343 announced details of its Winter Update, coming on November 8, which comes with some long-awaited modes.

Forge Mode will allow Halo Infinite fans to essentially create their own content – building new maps with a sophisticated editor and sharing them among the community. Arriving as a beta, we're still not totally sure on included features (although a leak has looked impressive).

343 Industries is also launching two new multiplayer maps on November 8 which will showcase exactly what Forge can do – as they were made entirely in Forge Mode.

The Winter Update also sees the full version of online Campaign co-op finally roll out to all players, allowing you to team up with your buddies and tackle Halo Infinite’s Campaign together. Expect to find new achievements, cross-platform support, mission replay, and shared progression. After several delays and a beta, it's been a long time coming.

However, there’s bad news for fans of couch co-op – the local split-screen co-op mode has now been canceled. It's a blow to those who have been waiting since launch for the old-school feature, but it's seemingly a matter of priorities.

“In order to improve and accelerate ongoing live service development, and to better address player feedback and quality of life updates, we have reallocated studio resources and are no longer working on local campaign split-screen co-op,” said 343 Industries.

Alongside these new additions, the Winter Update will include the Match XP beta, allowing players to level up alongside the 30-level battle pass. There’s also a new game mode, Covert One Flag, which features asymmetrical loadouts and round-based gameplay, just to mix it up a bit.

There’s certainly a lot of new content on its way, and Forge could be the answer to Halo Infinite’s content drought. For now, we’ll have to wait and see, but let’s hope the community gets really creative with this.

Want to read more about Halo Infinite? Check out where it sits in our top 15 Xbox Series X|S games, as well as our first impressions of Halo Infinite’s co-op.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Disney Reportedly Developing Amazon Prime Competitor With Exclusive Deals and Merch

The Walt Disney Company is reportedly looking at establishing a new Amazon Prime-style membership program that would offer customers discounts and special perks.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Disney is in the "early stages" of discussing the program and has not yet established a potential launch date for the scheme or outlined its membership costs. Instead, the company has been studying Amazon Prime, which offers advantages such as free shipping, and Apple One, which bundles premium services into tiered packages, to consider various options for its own plan.

Insiders claim that Disney's primary goal is to create a program that encourages members to spend more on its streaming services, theme parks, resorts and merchandise while also collecting valuable intel on customers purchasing habits by reviewing "data about which shows they watched, trips they took and merchandise they purchased" to better understand the preferences of each individual subscriber.

Disney's new membership program would reportedly target more casual Disney fans and customers, separating it out from the company's D23 Official Fan Club, which currently costs $99.99-$129.99 a year. Some executives have allegedly dubbed the company's next initiative "Disney Prime," though the WSJ asserts that title is only being used internally and won't be the name of the service.

"Technology is giving us new ways to customize and personalize the consumer experience so that we are delivering entertainment, experiences and products that are most relevant to each of our guests," said Kristina Schake, senior executive vice president and chief communications officer at Disney, in a statement. "A membership program is just one of the exciting ideas that is being explored."

Plans are still in the process of being formulated so all of the details are not yet ironed out. However, people familiar with the discussions have claimed that the Amazon-like membership program could include perks from third parties, such as discounted tickets for Disney shows on Broadway, in addition to cross-selling across its various platforms to forge a better link between its products and services.

As a first step, the company expects to introduce a retail feature to Disney+ sometime this year, which will enable subscribers to buy merchandise associated with the platform's various streaming titles by scanning a QR code that redirects customers to the ShopDisney website. Some merchandise tie-ins may even be exclusive to Disney+ users as an additional perk for those with a subscription.

D23 is right around the corner, and it is going to be bigger than ever this year. The Expo is running from September 9 to September 11, and for the very first time, it will feature a Disney and Marvel Games showcase, with brand new video game announcements from the likes of Star Wars, Pixar, Marvel, and more. Stay tuned to IGN for all of the latest news and reveals from the event.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Prey Director Says Arkane Was Forced to Use that Title: ‘It’s Gross… Not What I Wanted to Do’

Prey director Raphaël Colantonio has said developer Arkane Studios was forced to use the Prey name by Bethesda, despite his disagreement and feeling "gross" by using it.

Speaking on AIAS Game Maker's Notebook podcast (and spotted by Kotaku), Colantonio said that using this name was disrespectful to 2006's Prey - which was a completely different game made by a completely different team and company.

"Calling Prey Prey, that was very very hurtful to me. I did not want to call this game Prey, and I had to say I wanted to anyway in front of journalists," Colantonio said. "There is a bit of the artistic, the creative side that is insulted when you tell this artist: 'You know your game? It's going to be called Prey.' And you go like, 'I don't think it should. I think it's a mistake'."

Calling it Prey was also detrimental to the game's sales, Colantonio said, because fans of 2006's Prey - a first-person shooter about an ex-soldier being abducted by aliens - would protest Arkane's game and those who disliked the original wouldn't look twice at it.

"It was also a kick in the face to the original makers of Prey," he continued. "I wanted to apologize to them many, many times. I didn't really have a chance because I don't really know those people. It was never our intention to steal their IP and make it ours. It's gross and that's not what I wanted to do."

Colantonio left Arkane not long after Prey was released in 2017, citing the name debacle and overall disagreements with management as one of the reasons for doing so. While Prey was received well by critics and players - IGN said it was great - Colantonio commented that its sales were poor and the franchise has been dormant since some DLC was released in 2018.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

First Dwarf Is a New Open World Survival RPG With a Visual Touch of Breath of the Wild

First Dwarf is a new open world action-RPG that includes base building and survival elements - and seems to be taking its visual cues from Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The game sees you play as the titular First Dwarf, a scout in a mana-powered mech, sent to find a new home for his people. As you can see in the exclusive trailer below, you'll be exploring a pastoral open world set across floating islands, looting, crafting, building a colony, fighting off threats, and seemingly uncovering a more personal story along the way.

First Dwarf will come to PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and Switch in 2023.

"Planet Driftland is no more," reads a plot synopsis from developer Star Drifters, "a war between mages of four races has shattered the globe into floating islands and the inhabitants turned into barbaric tribes. Amongst the desolation the dwarves prevailed, but not for long - resources are running short and the once great civilization is catching its last breath. In a desperate attempt to secure the future, mighty airships are sent to the celestial islands in search of materials to save the dwarven kingdom."

Star Drifters promises that, along the way, you'll be able io upgrade your mech armour, allowing you to visit more far-flung floating islands, uncover the hidden past of your character's father, and even unlock the use of a miniature dragon called Ragna.

Although built in Unreal Engine 5, the game is adopting a more stylized look than a lot of its peers on the new engine. Its painterly textures and naturalistic colors definitely seem to be drawing on Breath of the Wild - not a bad comparison, all things considered.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.