Assassin's seeks "research assistants"

Update: Ubisoft has told Eurogamer that the research assistants thing is a fan project and nothing official after all. It's also pulled the flyer from its website by the look of it.

Original story: Abstergo Industries has announced that it's seeking candidates for an upcoming research project involving brand new technologies in the field of archaeology.

Waaaait a second! Isn't Abstergo the modern-day Templar holding company in the Assassin's Creed games? Why yes it is. Whatever could it all mean?

Yesterday we received an email purporting to come from "Leila Marino" at an Abstergo Industries email address, directing us to download a flyer posted on the official Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood website.

"You have been selected as, potentially, an excellent research assistant, and so we would like to extend the opportunity to join us in a cutting edge research project utilising new research methodologies that will help us determine the most accurate possible answers to some of history's biggest and most important questions," the flyer explained.

In Assassin's Creed fiction, the back-in-the-past stab-'em-up antics of heroes Altair and Ezio are actually genetic memories being relived by Desmond Miles in the present as he lies strapped into a machine called the Animus, which is also gradually awakening his abilities in the here and now. (God we love videogames.)

"If you are interested [in] getting in on the ground floor of this new and exciting research programme, please email the reasons why you think you should be chosen to Leila Marino to schedule an interview. Please be aware that since some of the research will be conducted utilising new technologies, there will be a Non Disclosure Agreement regarding those technologies.

"In addition as Abstergo cares about its employees and contractors, there will be a mandated full physical both before and after the research project is completed. This may include an MRI with one of our newer and less confining MRI testing machines."

We emailed Marino pointing out that we are excellent candidates, having already read Timeline by Michael Crichton three times and watched most of Quantum Leap.

It's not immediately obvious what the flyer's about (our money's on an in-character attempt to drum up candidates for a multiplayer beta test), but it looks legit. Apart from appearing on the official site, it's also been acknowledged by Ubisoft Montreal community developer Gabriel Graziani on his Twitter.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is due out for PS3 and Xbox 360 on 19th November with a PC version to follow next year.

Check out our single-player Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood preview from gamescom.