Image: Ubisoft

Ubisoft has been quiet on Assassin’s Creed for a while, but a new leak suggests the publisher is still thinking hard about how its biggest franchise fits on mobile. According to French YouTuber j0nathan, who has a track record of credible Ubisoft leaks, two unannounced Assassin’s Creed projects are in development. One of them, codenamed Pocket, is a mobile title reportedly set in Jerusalem.

Nothing is confirmed, and leaks change shape before launch. But the reported design choices behind Pocket are worth examining, because they point to a lesson the industry has been learning slowly: bringing AAA IP to mobile doesn’t mean shrinking a console game to fit a phone.

Smaller sessions, not a smaller open world

The most telling detail is not the setting but the structure. Pocket is reportedly inspired by the Mastery Challenges in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which are short, skill-based trials rather than sprawling open-world quests.

If that holds, it marks a deliberate step away from the formula that defines the mainline series. Open worlds with hundreds of hours of content are a hard sell on mobile, where sessions are short and attention is split. Bite-sized, replayable challenges fit how people actually play on phones, and they also lend themselves to live-ops: new challenges, leaderboards and seasonal content without the cost of building a new map.

This is a design-first approach to adaptation. Rather than asking how much of Assassin’s Creed can be squeezed onto a phone, Ubisoft appears to be asking which part of Assassin’s Creed works best in five-minute bursts.

A distinct visual identity over technical parity

The leak also compares Pocket’s visual style to Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, Ubisoft’s critically praised 2.5D action-platformer.

This matters. Many mobile adaptations of console franchises have tried to match their bigger siblings on visual fidelity, which pushes up device requirements, narrows the addressable audience and invites unflattering comparisons. A stylised look sidesteps all of that. It runs on more devices, ages better, and gives the game its own identity rather than positioning it as a lesser version of the console experience.

The Lost Crown also showed Ubisoft can make a tighter, more focused game in a legacy IP and win over critics. Borrowing that DNA for mobile would be a sensible bet.

Jade’s long shadow

Pocket arrives against an awkward backdrop. Assassin’s Creed Jade, the open-world mobile title developed with Tencent’s Level Infinite, was announced in 2022 and still hasn’t had a full release.

Jade took the more conventional route: an ambitious, console-style experience on mobile. Its extended development is a reminder of how difficult that path is. If Pocket really is a leaner, challenge-based game, it reads as a hedge, testing whether the franchise can succeed on mobile with lower scope and faster iteration.

Running two very different mobile approaches in parallel would give Ubisoft valuable data on what its audience actually wants from Assassin’s Creed on a phone.

Returning to Jerusalem

The setting is notable too. Jerusalem was a central location in the original 2007 game, and a return there plays to nostalgia among long-time fans. For a mobile title that needs to cut through a crowded store, familiarity is useful. It gives lapsed players a reason to look twice, while a new protagonist, reportedly named Myriam, leaves room for a fresh story.

The second leaked project, codenamed Mars, is reportedly set in Ancient Rome, with no confirmed platforms or release window. Together, the two projects suggest Ubisoft is spreading the franchise across formats rather than relying on a single flagship release.

The bigger picture

Ubisoft has already experimented with bringing full console titles to mobile hardware, including Assassin’s Creed Mirage on high-end iPhones. That approach serves a narrow slice of premium devices. Pocket, if the leak is accurate, would target the much wider mobile audience on its own terms.

That split is likely where the industry is heading for major IP: premium ports for players with flagship hardware, and purpose-built mobile experiences for everyone else. The publishers who succeed will be those who treat mobile as its own design discipline, not a downscaled destination.

For now, Pocket remains a codename and a set of unconfirmed details. But the direction it points in, with short sessions, a strong art style and focused scope, is the right one.

source: j0nathan