French video game company Ubisoft has said that the Adults Only (AO) rating that appeared on store pages after the release of Assassin’s Creed Mirage video game this weekend was placed there by mistake.
The game was officially unveiled on September 10th, 2022 during the Forward showcase event of Ubisoft. As CasinoGamesPro revealed at the time, during the live stream of the aforementioned event, an Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) Adults Only rating logo was seen.
Furthermore, an Xbox store listing for Assassin’s Creed Mirage also included an Adults Only 18+ rating for the video game. Such a rating is used by content descriptors to warn users that the game could feature intense violence, blood and gore, real gambling, partial nudity, and sexual themes.
Ubisoft, however, the video game published now revealed that some store pages displayed the game for preorders with an Adults Only ESRB rating, which was a mistake that is being fixed. The video game developer did not provide any explanation on how the Adults Only rating founds its way into the official Forward live stream but noted that Assassin’s Creed Mirage was still pending rating. In addition, the company reassured players that the game does not feature any real gambling or loot boxes.
Assassin’s Crees Series Fans Concerned about Potential Real Gambling Involvement
What caused such a level of concern to both video gaming experts and audiences was the fact that Adults Only ratings have been extremely rare over the last few years. In fact, the last video game launched with such a rating, Hatred, was released half a decade ago, in 2015. This is exactly why the initial AO 18+ rating caused a great deal of confusion among the game’s fans, mostly because such a rating seemed pretty much impossible, considering the content of the game.
One of the main reasons why the Adults Only rating is placed on video gaming products is retailers’ and digital storefronts’ reluctance to offer such games. On the other hand, the newest policies of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo suspend Adults Only-rated games to be rolled out on their platforms. This is why it came as no surprise that the AO 18+ rating did not stick, and the Xbox store page currently states that the game is pending its rating but it is expected to be rated M for Mature.
Now, as the Ubisoft statement to Eurogamer claims, Assassin’s Creed Mirage would not contain any real gambling and loot boxes, as well as any of the other aforementioned factors that would result in an ESRB AO 18+ rating. For the time being, the video game’s listing has been updated to reflect the fact that it has not been set yet.
The potential gambling content of the video game became a major point of concern for players. Ever since the Assassin’s Creed Origins, Ubisoft’s leveling system in the Assassin’s Creed series has been considered quite controversial, partly because the developer has allowed in-game microtransactions to sell boosts to single players. Although those boosts are quite different from real gambling, the fans of the series are already a bit biased when it comes to the franchise’s microtransaction history.
