Black Flag Remake leaks can only be called that if they come from the Montreuil suburb of Paris—otherwise they’re just sparkling Assassin’s Creed gossip. But good news: the games industry’s most open of open secrets (but that Ubi is still willing to threaten to sue its star over) has let a little more info slip ahead of its proper reveal, thanks to anonymous sources who spoke with France’s Jeux Vidéo Magazine.

The leaks, all communicated inexplicably in French, suggest that, well, this is very much an AC game, folks. But not an AC game in the old style—as the original Black Flag was—rather, Ubi is crowbarring its new, Witcher-3-by-another-name RPG style onto the classic pirate sim. Anticipate loot and an inventory, and combat that hews closer to a (much easier) soulslike than the choreographed combat of yore.

Which I gotta admit, I’m a little sad about. As one of perhaps seven people worldwide who maintain that AC: Unity showed the direction the series ought to have gone in, I rather liked Ubi’s old approach to AC, and only grudgingly tolerate the new, RPG-flavoured direction.

On the plus side, JVM’s sources suggest that Ubisoft will use the horsepower of our current generation of hardware to cleanse the Caribbean of loading screens. Plus, the studio is apparently adding even more stuff—littering the game’s smaller islands with content they didn’t have in the original. Which is… good? Maybe? It depends on the content, I suppose, but I’m not sure I’ve ever accused an AC game of not being big enough.

Another thing I don’t like (I’m pitching a column called that, by the way): the remake is said to be nixing a bunch of modern-day content in favour of more piratical adventures, some of which are made up of cut content from the original game, like a story starring lady-pirate Mary Read.

This is the original game. Imagine these guys dropping a bunch of common-tier loot and you’re pretty much there. (Image credit: Ubisoft)

Now, I’m a-okay with piratical adventures and Mary Read, but AC4 had the rare honour of being one of the only times I cared in the slightest about the series’ modern-day plot. It was clever: you played a dev at not-Ubisoft working on not-AC, gradually uncovering the whole thing as a sinister Templar plot as you went.

It was honestly pretty great, and I’m hoping Ubisoft hasn’t carved out too much of it in favour of more nautical fun.

Anyway, JVM’s sources suggest tentatively that they’re aiming for a March 2026 release, which means there’s still a few months for a big, splashy reveal. There’s also enough time to threaten to sue another actor or two for chatting about something everyone knows is coming.

2025 games: This year’s upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together

From PCGamer latest via this RSS feed