Assassin's Creed Japan game emerges from the Shadows

UPDATE 14/5/24: In typical Ubisoft fashion, the release date for Assassin's Creed Shadows has already leaked online, in advance of it officially being announced later this week when the game's first full trailer becomes available.

Mark your calendars, as you will be able to play a stealthy ninja Assassin in feudal Japan on 15th November. That date was mentioned by Ubisoft itself in the description for the game's upcoming trailer - and has now been edited out.

For more on the game and when that first trailer will drop, see our original story below.

ORIGINAL STORY 14/5/24: Ubisoft's upcoming feudal Japan-set Assassin's Creed game now has a final name: Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Previously, it was known only under its working title, Assassin's Creed: Codename Red.

Shadows will get a full reveal later this week, on Wednesday 15th May at 5pm UK time. It's then we'll get a full trailer for the game, which will debut then on YouTube (or you'll be able to find it right here on Eurogamer).

Ubisoft is yet to say when Shadows will launch, other than confirm it will arrive before the end of the current financial year (in March 2025). But the game will almost certainly land during the series' usual prime end of year sales slot - in either October or November 2024.

Shadows will be the first full-fat Assassin's Creed game since 2020's Valhalla, after the snack-sized Mirage launched last year to celebrate the series' 15th anniversary. More pertinently, however, Shadows is the first Assassin's Creed to come from the talented Ubisoft Quebec studio since 2017's Assassin's Creed Odyssey - the excellent if enormous entry set in Ancient Greece.

This year's entry will also coincide with the launch of Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed Infinity platform, which will serve as a story hub for the franchise's ongoing modern day plotline. I spoke with Ubisoft Quebec's Marc-Alexis Coté - now a figurehead for the entire Assassin's Creed franchise - back in 2022 to discover more.

Details on what exactly Shadows will be about are thin on the ground, though its feudal Japan setting has long been requested by fans. We do now at least have a first look at Shadows' version of the iconic Assassin's Creed franchise logo, now daubed in red blood:

A post to the official Assassin's Creed social media account on X today shows a large hourglass situated somewhere - presumably in Japan! - with blood red sand now pouring through it. Presumably this will run out on Wednesday at 5pm UK time - see you then!