MSI, the global leading brand in gaming, officially announced a collaboration with the renowned global game publisher, UBISOFT, for the highly anticipated game Assassin's Creed Mirage, which will be available worldwide on October 5th. Gamers who purchase designated high-end gaming laptops, gaming monitors or gaming routers equipped with the 13th generation Intel processors from MSI will have the chance to get a redemption code for Assassin's Creed Mirage.

UBISOFT's Assassin's Creed Mirage is an homage to the series and a particularly special tribute to the first Assassin's Creed. Inviting players to immerse themselves in a magnificent ninth-century Baghdad at the peak of its Golden Age, Assassin's Creed: Mirage offers a condensed, narrative-driven action-adventure experience with a modern take on the parkour, stealth, and assassination gameplay elements that have defined the franchise for over fifteen years. In this pivotal moment of History, players will become Basim Ibn Is'haq, a young thief with a mysterious past who joins the Hidden Ones in Alamut on a quest for answers.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) rejected a previous draft of Microsoft's proposed deal to merge with Activision Blizzard (to the tune of $69 billion). The expected summer completion date was missed due to this sole case of opposition—all of the other international regulatory bodies had approved a conglomeration of Xbox and Activision portfolios. Ubisoft later emerged as an unlikely knight in shining armor, since the UK CMA has provisionally approved freshly revamped conditions—it turns out that Microsoft had agreed to sell its cloud streaming rights to the French video game publisher. The Financial Times sat down with one of the company's co-founders—CEO Yves Guillemot—and discussed how cloud gaming will revolutionize the industry.

Guillemot was not asked to comment on how much his firm has agreed to spend—allegedly a one-off fee—on purchasing Activision Blizzard's cloud streaming rights (from Microsoft). He did discuss the inherent risk of embracing a relatively immature market technology: "When Netflix first said it was going to go into streaming, their shares fell a lot and they were widely criticized. Today, we see what they have become. It's going to be the same with video games, but it will take time. But when it takes off, it will happen very quickly...We strongly believe in the next five to 10 years, many games will be streamed and will also be produced in the cloud. That's what pushed us to go forward with the Microsoft deal." This looks to be an unusual move for Ubisoft, considering the rumors of a recent strategy shift in reaction to downturns in sales.

Ubisoft has announced strong early momentum for The Crew Motorfest, the brand-new open world driving experience of The Crew franchise. The game is the highest rated title in the franchise and had the best first week for the franchise in terms of total unit sell through, overall consumer spend, and season pass adoption rate.

The Crew Motorfest has been received positively by critics and players alike, delivering on its promise of breathtaking Hawaiian scenery and graphic fidelity, improved vehicle handling, and an ode to car culture through the Playlist system. The Crew 2 community have already embraced the new opus and have taken advantage of the "Collection Import" feature, with more than 42 million vehicles imported from The Crew 2 to The Crew Motorfest.

Ubisoft has confirmed that development on Tom Clancy's The Division 3 is underway, with the reappointment of a series veteran—Julian Gerighty will become the Executive Producer for The Division Universe "once Star Wars Outlaws - a game he is currently overseeing as Creative Director - has shipped." The publisher's low-key press release reveals that Gerighty is not making an enormous geographical move—he is simply moving up the rankings at Massive Entertainment (a Ubisoft-owned studio located in Malmö, Sweden). The French video game publisher revealed initial plans for the next mainline entry in their popular online-only action role-playing series: "A core focus of Gerighty's is to build a team for Tom Clancy's The Division 3, which will be led by Massive Entertainment, while making sure Tom Clancy's The Division 2 remains well supported. Outside of that, his attention will be on a solidification of brand identity."

He will oversee work on existing live service games, including Tom Clancy's The Division Resurgence (on mobile), and franchise spin-off—The Division Heartland—a free-to-play survival-action shooter (developed by Red Storm Entertainment). Gerighty stated: "We may have over 40 million players, but The Division is still in its early years as a franchise. There are so many incredible stories to tell, places to explore and people to protect." A high bar has been set with presentation, he continued: "I think that we delivered that with Tom Clancy's The Division's cutting-edge visuals, incredible gameplay, and promise to the player that they can't get this experience anywhere else, and then again with Tom Clancy's The Division 2. It's about refinement, it's about pushing the quality bar consistently forward."

Back in June, we unveiled the all-new Ubisoft Connect PC Beta rolling out gradually throughout the summer. Today, we're happy to say all PC players can jump in and test it out. This version of Ubisoft Connect PC was built from the ground up to meet your needs, improve usability, and enhance your experience while playing games. If you haven't tried it yet, go ahead and click the toggle switch at the top right of your desktop app to switch to the Beta version.

We've worked on several improvements in the past three months, and there's more in our pipeline. As we expand Ubisoft Connect PC, we're continuously looking for feedback. Please don't hesitate to switch to the new version every now and then (or just keep using it!) and let us know what you think: Ubisoft Connect PC Beta Feedback Form.

The Crew Motorfest is out now on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, and PC, and is included with a Ubisoft+ subscription. At launch, the game has over 600 available vehicles, 15 themed Playlists, and four PvP game modes for players to participate in, and it all takes place on the Hawai'ian island of O'ahu. Get ready to speed down the streets of Honolulu, soar above volcanoes in a plane, cruise along the beach in boats, customize your vehicles, and so much more in a game designed to be a car-culture celebration. With everything The Crew Motorfest has to offer, here are our top five ideas for what to check out first:

Experience Motorfest
Motorfest is a car-culture festival, and its grounds will serve as the heart of your experience. At the festival, you'll be able to see massive decorations, murals, inflatables and lot more, designed to honor O'ahu and car culture; show off your car collection; kick off the game's themed campaigns, called Playlists; and participate in online game modes including the Grand Race, Demolition Royale, Summit Contest, and Custom Show. As you explore Motorfest, you'll also see other players driving by, showing off their custom rides as they take part in the festivities as well, and deepening the sense of car-culture community.

When Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 5, it will represent a return to the series' roots - but what does that mean, exactly? For one thing, it means we'll be back in the Middle East (the dense urban landscape of Baghdad, specifically) amongst the ranks of the Hidden Ones, who at this point are classic Assassins in all but name - working out of secret bureaus, constructing the legendary fortress at Alamut, and sporting the familiar white robes we first saw on Altaïr back in 2007. They can also speak entirely in their native language, with the series' first-ever full localization in Arabic.

But the connection isn't merely in the setting and story; Assassin's Creed Mirage recaptures the spirit of the series' origins through gameplay, in ways both big and small. For example, as a former street thief, Basim can pickpocket people in the crowds, much like Ezio Auditore could. He can also make use of explosive noisemakers and mines, like the ones Ezio could craft in Assassin's Creed Revelations - and if he draws too much attention, his notoriety will rise, and players will need to tear down wanted posters or bribe officials if they don't want continual, escalating attention from guards.

Hello XDefiant Fans! I've got an update for you and it's a big one! We want to explain further why we haven't given a specific date yet for our launch. And sometimes full transparency is like drinking from a firehose so hope you all are thirsty! First things first. Here is a detailed description of how the submission process goes: Submission is the part of development where we give the game to the 1st parties (Sony, Xbox, etc.) to check that the game works correctly in their environments. To get to that we have to self-test with internal QA/Compliance teams to try and find any issues that might get flagged in the submission process. Once we have fixed or completed all of the tasks that we want/think we need for submission we then spend about 2-3 weeks prepping and validating a CM (Candidate Master) that we think is the final version of the game for submission.

It then goes through 1 week of heavy QA & Compliance testing by several Ubisoft teams. If it passes, then it goes to the 1st parties to be certified for release. 1st parties take a week to get their final report on the submission and give us a Pass or Not Pass with a list of must fixes for the next submission. Also, to be clear during this submission process, the QC team at Ubisoft are putting the build through the ringer looking for functionality bugs and another team at Ubisoft, divided up into PC, Sony and Xbox groups are looking for compliance bugs.

The Crew Motorfest roars onto the open roads of O'ahu on September 14, when players can delve into its wealth of Playlists - multi-event campaigns themed around specific aspects of car culture - and explore the island from behind the wheel of more than 600 vehicles, including boats and planes. It's a big motorsports adventure, and the developers at Ubisoft Ivory Tower want to ensure that as many people as possible can play.

To find out more about accessibility in The Crew Motorfest, we spoke with Project Coordinator Anthony De Rueda about new features, how the developers built on their previous efforts, and the challenge of making high-speed gameplay accessible for players from a broad spectrum of ability and skill.

AMD and Ubisoft have officially announced the PC features players will be able to enjoy in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. A trailer that debuted at Gamescom showed off exactly what you can expect; check out the details below.

Ray Tracing and Extended Graphic Settings
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will include ray traced reflections and shadows for more immersive environmental exploration, and extended graphic settings that allow for granular tweaks to a multitude of visuals such as environment reflection quality, and distant shadows.

Ubisoft has proudly announced that the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage, has gone gold, and that the game launch has been pulled forward, from October 12th to October 5th. Assassin's Creed Mirage is developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux, and it will bring back focus on parkour, stealth, and assassinations.

As the game has gone gold, meaning that the development has been completed, we expect more information as we get closer to the announced launch date. Ubisoft has previously released gameplay and story trailers back in June, as well as confirmed that there are no plans for any DLC content for Assassin's Creed Mirage. As said, the game will launch on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on October 5th.

Earlier this week it was reported that Ubisoft had cancelled development on its sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising (2020)—Video Games Chronicle gathered information from multiple anonymous sources. The article proposed that: "a follow-up game was in early development at Ubisoft Quebec, but company leadership ultimately decided to cancel it earlier this month due to perceived challenges around establishing the IP." This studio was best known for its work on Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018), but a brave decision was made to produce a new intellectual property—Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb understood that Ubisoft had grand ambitions to turn Immortals into a big time franchise, with a continued multiplatform release strategy, as well as spin-offs.

Ubisoft has been going through a rough patch in recent times—several unannounced games were canned earlier this year, and many of the publisher's 2022 releases underperformed at retail. According to VGC's inside sources, Ubi leadership has prioritized prominent brands (e.g Assassin's Creed), and this rethink put the Immortals sequel's future in jeopardy. A company spokesperson has responded to the news site's article, and confirmed that development staff are now working on more important IPs: "As part of our global strategy, we are redirecting and reallocating some creative teams and resources within the Quebec studio to other unannounced projects. The expertise and technologies these teams developed will serve as an accelerator for the development of these key projects focused on our biggest brands. We have nothing further to share at this time."

The Crew Motorfest launches on September 14, letting you race across the entire island of O'ahu in more than 600 vehicles and compete in themed Playlist campaigns the highlight Porsche 911, electric supercars, the islands of Hawaii, and more. But before you visit the Motorfest, take a drive back in time with Creative Director Stéphane Beley and Managing Director Ahmed Boukhelifa, both co-founders of Ivory Tower, and Live Producer Sofiane Brahimi to learn the origins of The Crew franchise, what the developers at Ivory Tower learned from fans, and how Motorfest is the culmination of 17 years of hard work.

The Crew Motorfest is out September 14 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Ubisoft+, and Amazon Luna and allows you to import your vehicle collection from The Crew 2. You can pre-order it now, and players who pre-order the Gold or Ultimate Editions, or who play through Ubisoft+.

When The Crew Motorfest launches on September 14, players will get free rein to explore the Hawaiian island of O'ahu from behind the wheel of more than 600 vehicles, including a broad array of licensed cars, jeeps, buggies, motorcycles, boats, and planes. Featuring a huge open world filled with activities and freestyle stunt opportunities, The Crew Motorfest's main attractions are its Playlists, a series of self-contained, themed campaigns that each include six to 10 events focused on a specific brand, car type, or aspect of car culture, like drift racing, classic cars, or even sightseeing.

Playlists provide you with loaner vehicles appropriate to each of their events, and completing all of a playlist's events unlocks an exclusive car for you to add to your garage. Playlist events sometimes carry special victory conditions or modifiers - in the 911 Legacy: A Porsche Story Playlist, for example, you'll earn bonuses for driving clean and keeping your car free of damage. Vintage Garage turns off your GPS minimap while you drive its classic cars, and the laid-back Hawaii Scenic Tour doesn't even require you to place in its events, only to complete them.

When Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 12, it will continue the series' tradition of bringing players closer to history with History of Baghdad, a feature that adds historical context to the game's simulation of the past. Part of an in-game Codex that also includes tutorials and a Database with lore, History of Baghdad will deliver expertly curated information on the history, art, and culture of Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate circa the ninth century, accompanied by images provided by museum partners.

In keeping with Assassin's Creed Mirage being a tribute to early Assassin's Creed games, History of Baghdad will be integrated into the main game, similarly to the Database of earlier games, and is tied to player progression, with an in-game reward for Basim once completed. As Basim visits 66 historical sites throughout Baghdad, players will unlock research-driven articles that dig into information across five topics: Economy; Belief & Daily Life; Government; Art & Science; and Court Life.

The Division Heartland will run a Closed Beta starting on June 27, giving players a chance to play a work-in-progress version of the game, explore the mysteries of Silver Creek, battle against NPC enemies and other players, and get a taste of what's in store for them when the free-to-play game launches. Visit the Heartland Closed Beta registration site to sign up for a chance to get in; note that this test is only available on PC to players in the United States, Canada, or Mexico.

Players who get into the beta will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement and refrain from sharing their thoughts or gameplay publicly, but they will be encouraged to share any and all feedback with the Heartland development team. The goal of the test is to get input from the community; if you want in, register on the official Heartland site and keep an eye on your inbox as invitations will go out progressively over the coming weeks.

Xbox Game Pass support is coming to GeForce NOW. Members will soon be able to play supported PC games from the Xbox Game Pass catalog through NVIDIA's cloud gaming servers. Learn more about how support for Game Pass and Microsoft Store will roll out in the coming months. Plus, Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition is the first from the world's most popular real-time strategy franchise to arrive on GeForce NOW.

Announced over the weekend, Game Pass members will soon be able to play supported PC games from the Game Pass catalog with GeForce NOW. We're working closely with Microsoft to enable members to play select PC titles from Microsoft Store, just as they can today on GeForce NOW with their Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect and GOG.com accounts. Members who are subscribed to PC Game Pass or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be able to stream these select PC titles from the Game Pass library - without downloads or additional purchases for instant gaming from the cloud.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora will launch on December 7 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Amazon Luna and PC through Ubisoft Connect, it was announced at Ubisoft Forward today. Developed by Massive Entertainment - a Ubisoft Studio in collaboration with James Cameron's production company Lightstorm Entertainment and Disney, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora lets you play as a Na'vi who awakens on Pandora years after being abducted as a child and raised by the human militaristic corporation known as the RDA. Now a stranger in your own birthplace, you must reckon with the return of the RDA and the threat they pose to Pandora while reclaiming your ancestral heritage and learning what it means to be Na'vi.

A stand-alone adventure set within the Avatar universe, you will explore and protect a never-before-seen continent of Pandora: the Western Frontier in first-person. Your Na'vi character is customizable with options including different body types, voices and body paint, and like you, your character will learn how to be a Na'vi, including how to harness your formidable strength and agility while traversing through the stunning and dangerous open world. Add to that your knowledge of humans, their weapons and technology from years of RDA training, and you are uniquely equipped to combat the RDA and protect Pandora.

XDefiant will launch later this summer, but players won't have to wait that long to play a few more rounds of the free-to-play PVP shooter. Announced at Ubisoft Forward, XDefiant will be running an Open Session for all players on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S from June 21-23; sign up by going to PlayXDefiant.com. Anyone who participated in the Closed Beta in April can log in a day early to participate in a special Early Access phase of the Open Session starting on June 20. Over one million players played in the Closed Beta, which was integral in helping the team test myriad aspects of the game and gather feedback.

"We received a lot of great feedback from our players after the end of our Closed Beta," says creative director Safy Saada, "and for the Open Session, we'll likely see some new faction balancing (particularly for Libertad) based on player feedback, as well as weapon balancing based on data we've collected from the Closed Beta."

The first look at Star Wars Outlaws gameplay debuted during Ubisoft Forward, giving us a brand-new look at cunning scoundrel Kay Vess and her companion Nix taking on a high-risk, high-reward mission. The two must infiltrate a secret location, use stealth, fight with a blaster, and steal valuable goods.

Announced during the Xbox Games Showcase on June 11, 2023, Star Wars Outlaws, the first-ever open-world Star Wars game, invites you to pull off one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen as cunning scoundrel Kay Vess. Set between the events of "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" and "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi", Star Wars Outlaws takes place in a time when the Galactic Empire relentlessly pursues the final defeat of the Rebel Alliance, and the criminal underworld is thriving. Seeking the means to start a new life, Kay and her companion Nix will fight, steal, and outwit their way through the galaxy's crime syndicates and join the galaxy's most wanted. Star Wars Outlaws is launching on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC in 2024..

Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 12, 2023, for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, taking players to ninth-century Baghdad, where a young Basim starts his journey to become a Hidden One. Haunted by visions, Basim begins as a common street thief, but with guidance from Fuladh and Roshan (voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo), he will grow to become a master assassin.

An homage to the first Assassin's Creed, Mirage will emphasize classic stealth gameplay, with tools that include throwing knives and smoke bombs, as well as new abilities like Assassin's Focus - which lets Basim take down multiple enemies in rapid succession. Additionally, Assassin's Creed Mirage will be fully localized in Arabic, allowing players across the world to experience the story in Basim's native language.

Star Wars Outlaws, the first-ever open-world Star Wars game, is coming to Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC in 2024. With development led by Ubisoft's Massive Entertainment in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games, Star Wars Outlaws invites you to play as cunning scoundrel Kay Vess (Humberly González), who - along with her loyal companion Nix (Dee Bradley Baker) - must pull off one of the greatest heists the Outer Rim has ever seen.

Set between the events of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Outlaws takes place in a time when the Galactic Empire relentlessly pursues the final defeat of the Rebel Alliance, and the criminal underworld is thriving. Kay will take on high-risk, high-reward missions from the galaxy's crime syndicates as she seeks the means to start a new life.

Today, during the Summer Game Fest live showcase, Ubisoft announced Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, an action-adventure platformer game set in a mythological Persian world. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown will release on 18th January, 2024 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, Amazon Luna as well as Windows PC through the Epic Games Store and the Ubisoft Store. Players can also subscribe to Ubisoft+ on PC, Xbox and Amazon Luna.

In this brand-new adventure, players will embody Sargon, a young, gifted warrior, and member of an elite group called The Immortals. As they are sent to rescue Prince Ghassan, they will explore Mount Qaf, a once wondrous place, now cursed and hostile. Sargon and his brothers-in-arms will soon discover that time itself will be a treacherous foe and that the world balance must be restored.

Get into your favorite games faster by linking GeForce NOW to Steam, Epic Games Store and Ubisoft accounts. And get a peek at more games coming to GeForce NOW later this year by tuning in to Ubisoft Forward on Monday, June 12, when the game publisher will reveal its latest news and announcements. Plus, two new games are available to stream from the cloud this week, as well as the newest season for Tom Clancy's The Division 2 from Ubisoft. GeForce NOW makes gaming convenient and easy for members by enabling them to link their accounts from Steam, Epic and, most recently, Ubisoft, directly to the service. Instead of signing into their accounts for each play session, members can be automatically signed in across their devices after linking them up just once.

Starting today, launching Ubisoft Connect games requires members to link their Ubisoft accounts in the app. Once that's completed, members can effortlessly play hit Ubisoft games, including Rainbow Six Siege, Far Cry 6 and The Division 2. Members also have the benefit of library account syncing, which automatically syncs supported GeForce NOW games from Ubisoft Connect and Steam libraries - helping members find their Ubisoft games instantly. For an even more streamlined experience, upgrade to an Ultimate or Priority membership to skip the waiting lines over free members and get into gaming faster.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is coming to Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One on October 12. A return to stealth for the franchise, Mirage takes place in the ninth century during Baghdad's Golden Age, with players guiding Basim from a young street thief to a master Hidden One, eventually becoming the man we see in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Ubisoft also revealed a new gameplay trailer today, in which fresh features debuted alongside old favorites, with an overall emphasis on stealth, player choice, and parkour. Throwing knives and smoke bombs make their return to the franchise, as do the large-scale choose-your-own-path assassination Black Box missions.

New abilities like Assassin's Focus let Basim take out a group of guards in an instant, while pole-vaulting lets him traverse rooftops with ease as he makes his getaway. The trailer also provided a glimpse of Fuladh, the Hidden Ones' Eagle-Master and one of Basim's key allies in Baghdad.