Assassin's Creed Mirage developers acknowledge its mysterious lore-bending cut post-credits scene
Elephant and ostrich herding also trimmed.
As reported last year, the enjoyable Assassin's Creed Mirage features a seemingly-cut post-credits scene that boasts a huge twist to the franchise's lore.
Dataminers discovered the unfinished scene several months ago and pieced what they could together from various files. (We'll remind of you what happens in the scene below, as it's unclear whether this is content Ubisoft ultimately decided against including, or files left lurking within Mirage to be activated by another patch down the line.)
Regardless, Ubisoft has now for the first time acknowledged the scene exists - or existed - as part of a reddit AMA with Assassin's Creed fans. "All we can say is that what's not in your playthrough does not exist," Mirage's art director Jean-Luc Sala wrote, following this up with a winking emoji. Eurogamer previously contacted Ubisoft about the mysterious scene, but received no response.
The scene in question appears to have been designed as a post-credits twist available once players have finished Mirage's main campaign. Datamined files suggest we would have seen a radio mast in Mirage's desert - a shock, as Mirage is set entirely in the past - and then heard an audio conversation between two Abstergo employees discussing the events of the game and the Assassin's Creed series in general, set several hundred years in the future (which would have been even more of a shock!).
This would have marked a major shift in Assassin's Creed's "modern day" storytelling, which feels like it has largely run its course over more than a dozen games so far. Moving the present day to a far-off future, and adding in mention of an impending global collapse we're still to witness, brings in a new mystery to the series. It's also well-timed with the franchise's big return later this year, when the samurai-set Assassin's Creed Codename Red arrives as the first game embedded in the new Assassin's Creed Infinity launcher/hub/platform. It's possible, if not somewhat likely, that Mirage's deleted scene finally becomes publicly available around then, teeing all that up.
Infinity, designed as a place to launch and support future Assassin's Creed games of all shapes and sizes, could also be where we see more of Mirage's main character Basim. Mirage itself will not gain any further DLC updates, but the game's creative director Stephane Boudon has now said Ubisoft has ideas for how to continue Basim's story.
"Yes, we still have a lot to say about Basim," Boudon wrote. "Mirage has been designed as a standalone experience without any DLC plan. However, we have ideas on how we could extend the story of Basim, surely. But as of today, no post launch content is planned for Mirage."
Asked about content planned for Mirage that was left on the cutting room floor, Sala revealed that missions involving both elephants and ostriches were once planned.
"Perhaps only one regret, we had to abort what we called 'Operation Dumbo Drop'", Sala said. This would have been a mission where you "bring an elephant in the city zoo of the palace".
"We learned a lot about the zoo of the Caliph and elephants [that] never made it on the game!" Sala continued. "There was a lot more in Baghdad and we had to cut some few things here and there... activities around horses races and arabian steeds could have been cool as there was a horse track in the city... and also shepherding ostriches could have been a thing ;)"
Still looking for more Mirage to play? Since launch the game has seen several major updates, including the addition of a New Game Plus and permadeath mode to keep you busy.