A prominent Assassin’s Creed leaker has been caught using AI to doctor what is reported to be the first official image released of Assassin’s Creed: Codename Invictus, an upcoming PvP multiplayer game being developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Ubisoft called out the Assassin’s Creed leaker on Twitter, but fans of the stealth action-adventure franchise seem divided on whether he was in the wrong.
Fans closely following the Assassin’s Creed series have known about Codename Invictus for some time now. First announced during an Ubisoft Forward presentation in 2022, Codename Invictus could easily have been lost in the shuffle alongside other news, which included gameplay footage of Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, a big Skull & Bones developer update, and the reveals of other Assassin’s Creed games like Mirage, Codename Hexe, and Codename Red. Still, fans eager for a multiplayer Assassin’s Creed experience have been eagerly awaiting official news for more than three years since the showcase, finding it very hard to come by.
One prominent leaker who has a decent track record of putting out accurate information, j0nathan, recently attempted to slake fans’ thirst for information by sharing what he purported to be the first leaked screenshot of Codename Invictus, showing a follow-behind view of a dual blade-wielding character clad in colorful toga-like clothing standing under a bright blue sky in the middle of an arena packed with cheering fans. In a rare showing, the official Assassin’s Creed account actually responded to j0nathan’s post, chiding him for spreading misinformation. The response post stated that the screenshot “might have started as an image from our private test, but it’s been heavily altered (most probably with AI),” promising fans that Ubisoft would share more information on the game “when the time is right.” This comes just days after j0nathan reported serious issues with Assassin’s Creed: Codename Invictus‘ closed testing.
While Ubisoft’s response seems intended to discredit the leaker, it may have done the exact opposite, as many fans took the comment as an admission that the image was at least somewhat legitimate. For his part, j0nathan’s initial post carried a disclaimer urging fans to be gentle about the upcoming Assassin’s Creed game’s art direction, as it has not yet been fully rendered and still contains some “big gray blocks.” He has also since posted what he claims to be the unedited version of the image, and the only major differences between the two appear to be color swaps, as the original has the character wearing a much simpler white and green garment and includes a much duller tone to the sky.
Explaining the reason behind his decision to release the leaked images, j0nathan may have hinted that he was trying to defend Ubisoft in light of rumors surrounding the art direction of the upcoming multiplayer game. In October 2024, j0nathan himself reported that Assassin’s Creed: Codename Invictus would feature Fall Guys-style gameplay, with 16-player knockout rounds leading to additional power-ups and challenges for the competitors that make it through. This led to some rumors that the game would also include similarly cartoonish visuals, and he was trying to dispel these notions by providing a more accurate and realistic representation. He did not, however, explain why the color correction was added in his original leak.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
The snark-filled social media exchange leaves fans of the game in a little bit of a weird place, with Ubisoft still keeping mum about the project more than three years after its announcement and possibly its most popular leaker seeming ready to back off from Assassin’s Creed coverage. j0nathan claimed that he also could leak images from Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe, the single-player game centered around witch trials, but following Ubisoft’s intervention, he now intends to keep them to himself.
