Basim Ibn Ishaq, and will be smaller than recent full-scale Assassin's Creed games, trading open-world environments for a greater focus on stealth-based gameplay.
The decision to turn the expansion into a full game was made in part because of the growing gap between Assassin's Creed games—Ubisoft stopped releasing annual sequels a few years ago—and the difficulties it's had with other high-profile productions, including widespread workplace abuses.
The report was corroborated by Eurogamer, which said in a separate story that it has also heard of the project, and of its transition from a Vahalla expansion to a smaller standalone game. According to Eurogamer, the character of Basim will be fleshed out in the game in a story that takes place ahead of the events in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
The description of the game as a smaller-scale spinoff of Assassin's Creed Valhalla also matches up with what Ubisoft has done with the Far Cry series, which has had standalone spinoffs of the mainline series since New Dawn's neon post-apocalypse.
The Bloomberg report says the new Assassin's Creed game will be out in late 2022 or sometime in 2023, ahead of the live-service Assassin's Creed Infinity.
