This leak was confirmed, and you can check out my new posts to see the new info.
Even if this isn’t the cover art for Assassin’s Creed III, it is undeniably bad ass. Details on the rumored leak below the image.
(Click to biggify — Image via Kotaku)
The story so far: Allegedly, this image was snapped on the sly by a Best Buy employee from an internal company news source and sent off to Kotaku for all of us internet nerds to get our greasy eyeballs on.
Why it might be legit: Ubisoft is expected to reveal some details about AC3 next Monday, March 5th. [Update: Some sources are saying the reveal will happen tomorrow, March 1st.] Given that we’re under a week away from the date of the big reveal, it’s not hard to believe that Ubisoft might have shipped out some assets early to big companies so they can get some displays ready or whatever.
If the image is genuine, it obviously means a big change for the franchise. You can see an early colonial flag in the background, the character is rocking a revolution-era pistol and jacket, and there are clear Native American influences in the outfit and the tomahawk.
I’ll keep up with the story and keep you ravenous robots posted if anything new pops up.
[UPDATE: Banner leak at GameInformer:
(Click to biggify)
As SenadorKooch mentioned in the comments, there has indeed been another leak that would seem to confirm the first. A rabble of internetters caught a glimpse of an AC3 information hub banner on GameInformer’s site. One enterprising young man over at ToasterVision posted a screenshot of the banner in action. It looks like the image on the far left is an actual Ubisoft-released asset, but the middle area looks like it could easily be a quick photoshop job by the GI media team.
I don’t know about you folks, but all these suspiciously well-timed leaks make me think this is all part of a dastardly clever marketing campaign by Ubisoft. If so, I gotta say: Well played Ubi, well played. If not? Well Ubisoft is probably pissing themselves with joy over the free publicity.]