Ubisoft calls full-screen pop-up ads while playing Assassin's Creed a 'technical error'

Assassin's Creed Odyssey players on Xbox and PlayStation experienced something strange this past weekend: a full-screen ad for the recently released Assassin's Creed Mirage that popped up during gameplay. Yeah, this was the first we heard of an obtrusive pop-up-style ad appearing on-screen while you're immersed in a digital world. The ad appeared and took over the entire screen as Assassin's Creed Odyssey players tried to open the map.

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Redditor Triddell24 captured the moment on Xbox and posted it online. What was the general consensus? People weren't happy, and coming from Ubisoft - the kings of microtransactions - it was widely seen as the publisher testing out a potential new revenue stream on an older title. Worst of all, there's no ad blocker for playing games on Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5.

And now, a few days after the story blew up across various videogame channels and outlets, Ubisoft has released a statement saying that pop-up ads while playing Assassin's Creed games were "the result of a technical error." One that has been addressed.

Apparently, with Black Friday Sales, Ubisoft wanted to let players of older Assassin's Creed games know that Mirage was currently on sale. "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," writes Ubisoft. "Unfortunately, this technical error caused the promotion to appear in one of our in-game menus instead."

What was the general consensus? People weren't happy, and coming from Ubisoft, they weren't buying the "technical error" reasoning as valid. In fact, over on X, additional reader context notes on the post highlight a similar situation with Assassin's Creed Odyssey that interrupted gameplay to push players to buy that game's DLC.

Ubisoft is not alone in pushing ads; it's just that they're rarer in single-player games. Microsoft has been investing heavily in ad-related technology, which is expected to enter the Xbox ecosystem in the coming years in a big way. It's not out of the realm of possibility for Xbox Game Pass to receive an ad-supported tier that will present ads before and potentially during gameplay.