As if 2020 wasn’t a bizarre enough year as it is, the most recent leak purporting to know information about the Assassin’s Creed franchise has outdone itself by using a screenshot from Shrek as supposed proof. Naturally, this leak was quickly debunked by Shrek enthusiasts around the world, but not before it actually managed to trick a few people.
Typically speaking, fans should take all leaks with a grain of salt since as a whole they cannot be considered reliable. When determining the validity of a leak, source, proof, and believability all play a major factor. Unfortunately for this Assassin’s Creed leak, it had none of those going for it.
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Perhaps blinded by hope for a the actually interesting setting it put forth, some fans were tricked, albeit briefly, by the leak. It didn’t take long for everyone to realize that this was clearly a troll, though, and turn their attention back to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
The leak claimed that Assassin’s Creed 2021 would return to France in a different time period, this time featuring the black plague as the major historical focus as opposed to Unity’s French Revolution setting. Additionally, it would feature cross generation gameplay, meaning players would be able to play it on either the current generation or next generation consoles. This idea did sound exciting to some, as so far the Assassin’s Creed franchise hasn’t made a habit of revisiting regions in different time periods, but alas it was not to be. Instead, fans got trolled with a picture of Prince Charming from Shrek.
While this is pretty hilarious at first glance, some can’t help but be frustrated at the misinformation this sort of thing spreads. Though this one was easily debunked relatively quickly due to the infamous source of its so called proof, other fake leaks can be damaging to fans and developers alike. Often these fake leaks will either get people’s hopes up for something that will never be or turn them off a game they otherwise might have enjoyed. Flooding the internet with fake news such as this also makes it more difficult to discern when a piece of news is actually real or not.
Given that this was shared on 4chan by an anonymous user and with only one low quality screenshot as proof, it is pretty clear that this is fake even before recognizing the Shrek reference. This whole incident serves to provide a good laugh but also as a reminder that fans should be skeptical of what they see online.
Assasin’s Creed 2021 is not about Shrek.
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