In what is surely one of the most unique game reveals ever, Ubisoft is announcing the next installment of its popular Assassin’s Creed franchise today. A still on-going recording of artist Boss Logic creating the game’s logo in photoshop can be viewed live and has already run about 90 minutes. So far, the new game appears to be set in the medieval era, possibly during Viking Age.
Update: The logo now appears to portray distinctly Viking-looking ships.
Update 2: The castle has now been reverted to a ruin. There is additional detail on the warriors. The feature image and below gallery have been updated.
Update 3: We have a dragon head! Axes for Viking warriors and helmets for Saxon warriors added, too.
Update 4: The silhouette of the protagonist is being detailed. Feature image changed, images added to the below gallery.
Update 5: Full logo in feature image and gallery. Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla revealed as game’s subtitle. Click here for more.
What you can see above is the latest image at the time of writing. It features two contrasting halves, with one location appearing warm or temperate, while the other frigid and cold. Notably, the warmer region features a distinctly European-looking castle with what appears to be Saxon era warriors fighting outside. That would mean the game is possibly set sometime between 1000-1300 AD.
Interestingly, the castle looks to be modeled on Bamburgh Castle in northeast England. Bamburgh was originally a Saxon outpost before it was seized, destroyed, and then rebuilt by the Normans.
Edit: As noted above, the castle now looks older and ruined, so this may be classic 8th Century Viking Age after all, even if the architecture still doesn’t quite match.
Is the split logo Ubisoft alluding to two different playable in-game locations? Perhaps it’s symbolic of the protagonist traveling to two different lands, maybe even conquering two different lands? Scandinavian-descended Normans in Britain, or The Battle of Hastings?
Initially, the logo appeared to be at odds with long-standing rumors that the series’ would be set during the Viking age. While the colder side of the logo certainly looked Scandinavian, the castle on the right was far too modern to be representative of the 800-950 AD Viking age most commonly portrayed in pop-culture. But then the ship appeared.
You can check out a gallery below of the artwork coming together. Twinfinite will be keeping this post updated.