WWG reported last week on a rumor that the next Assassin's Creed game, set to be revealed at E3, will be called "Origins," and will be built around a "vast open world experience" set in ancient Egypt. That rumor has now been strengthened by the appearance of an image on Reddit depicting a character on a boat, armed with a bow, arrows, and shield, pursuing a mission called "Assassinate the Crocodile"—and which Eurogamer claims has been verified by three separate sources as a legitimate AC: Origins screenshot.
The image indicates that the player must "follow Shadya to Khenut's Villa," possibly (probably?) a reference to an Egyptian Queen of the Fifth Dynasty, wife of King Unas, and possibly the mother of Queen Iput I. The relative lack of historical information about Khenut could be a way for Ubisoft to ground the game believably in ancient Egyptian society, without having to tie itself down too tightly to a particular real-world narrative.
The timing is right—E3 is just a month away, so this is when you'd naturally expect things to start leaking—and the report also jibes with our January breakdown of everything we think we know about the next Assassin's Creed game: That it will be set in Egypt, that the game world will be much bigger and more open than previous games, and—this is the big one—that boats will be back in all their Black Flag-style glory. (And horses, too, but let's face it, the nags are always in there and boats are where it's at.)
I've emailed Ubisoft for confirmation that the image is legit. Given the proximity to E3, when the game is expected to be properly revealed to the world, I don't imagine it'll want to drop the dime now, but I'll let you know if it happens.
