Assassin’s Creed Mirage can be rated as adults only due to real gambling

Ubisoft’s anticipated action-adventure Assassin’s Creed throwback, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, could be rated an unprecedented Adults Only by the ESRB due to the inclusion of “real gambling”. The US rating board classifies this as “betting or betting with real cash or currency”. This differs from “simulated gambling”, which is described as gambling “without betting or wagering real money or currency”.

The rating first appeared on Xbox Store, where we initially assumed it must be a mistake. However, eagle-eyed fans on ResetEra noticed that Ubisoft’s live stream yesterday was also flagged as AO by the ESRB. Assuming all of this is accurate, that means there could be a way to play for real money in Mirage, although of course we will check with the French publisher’s representatives and try to find out exactly what is going on here. There are currently no ratings listed on PS shop.

Mirage is set in Baghdad, so it wouldn’t be unusual for there to be some sort of in-universe mini-game, potentially inspired by historical betting or gambling. But you’d expect something like this to fall under the boundaries of “simulated gambling”, so we’re not quite sure what’s going on here. The Xbox Store also mentions “in-game purchases”, but that’s par for the course these days, isn’t it? The number of AO-rated video games is vanishingly small, so it will be interesting to see if this is a mix-up or if Ubisoft really is turns the temperature up one step.

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