In-game Black Friday ads in certain Assassin's Creed titles are "the result of a technical error", Ubisoft say

Earlier this week reports surfaced of players encountering in-game pop-up adverts for this year's Assassin's Creed: Mirage, while innocently trying to visit the map screen in Ubisoft's older open world stabathon Assassin's Creed: Odyssey.

Here's one we found on Reddit, which was uploaded on Wednesday. A few users in the associated thread are reporting similar pop-ups in Assassin's Creed: Origins and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla.

Just got an in-game advertisement when I tried to go to the map
byu/triddell24 inxboxone

Is this the first, teetering snowball that unleashes an avalanche of mobile-style in-game advertising for Ubisoft's blockbuster gameworlds? Will I have to listen to a Nestlé jingle whenever I hack a radio tower in the next Far Cry? Short answer: no. Longer answer, as shared with RPS this morning by an Ubisoft representative: "We have been made aware that some players encountered pop-up ads while playing certain Assassin's Creed titles yesterday. This was the result of a technical error that we addressed as soon as we learned of the issue."

Big publishers such as Ubisoft have experimented with adding in-game ads to their games in the past, not always for the worst. 2K Games tried it with unskippable loading screen videos in NBA 2019. Sega and Sports Interactive's Football Manager offered free matchside billboard space to mental health charities in 2020. In the latter case, the ads are both for a good cause and consistent with the game's representation of virtual soccer. Pop-up Black Friday discounts during the heyday of the Peloponnesian War? Less convincing.

This isn't the first time Odyssey has experienced such a technical issue. It happened in 2019, as reported by Kotaku. An Ubisoft representative told the site back then that "it was a bug and has been fixed."

Little update: Ubisoft have said a bit more about the pop-up on Xitter. "Our intention was to display a promotion for Assassin's Creed Mirage as part of the franchise news in the main menu of other Assassin's Creed games," reads a statement.

"Unfortunately, this technical error caused the promotion to appear in one of our in-game menus instead," it continues. "We want to ensure the best player experience possible, and these disruptive pop-ups were promptly removed once we learned of the issue. We appreciate your understanding as we investigate the cause of the issue."