Leaked Footage Points to a Canceled Assassin's Creed Game in Ancient China

Purported gameplay from Assassin's Creed Destiny, a reportedly canceled Assassin's Creed project set in ancient China, has surfaced online. MP1st published a video described as containing gameplay and placeholder footage, according to coverage dated October 17, 2026 Engadget. The project was reportedly being developed by Ubisoft and Tencent. The footage is unverified.

The purported gameplay segment shows a playable character scaling castle walls and performing stealth kills. Additional placeholder material shows different combat skills and weapons, including an umbrella-like weapon. The reported setting is 206 BCE during the Qin Empire.

Video Games Chronicle reported on October 16, 2026 that footage from a reportedly cancelled Assassin's Creed game set in China had leaked Video Games Chronicle. IGN described the material as apparent leaked footage of a canceled Assassin's Creed game set in Qin Dynasty China IGN. VGC characterized the title in question as a cancelled mainline entry.

The material overlaps in period with Assassin's Creed Codename Jade. Jade was announced in 2022 as a mobile Assassin's Creed entry set in ancient China. Ubisoft describes Codename Jade as a AAA RPG action-adventure for mobile devices and as free-to-play Ubisoft. The company also describes it as the first open-world Assassin's Creed game built for iOS and Android, set in third-century BCE China, following the Warring States period Ubisoft. A separate Ubisoft post places Codename Jade in China during the Qin dynasty Ubisoft.

A Ubisoft executive told VGC that Assassin's Creed Jade would have co-op gameplay. A 2024 Reuters report said Assassin's Creed Jade would be delayed until 2025. Both details were recapped in the October 17, 2026 coverage.

The broader context here is what two kinds of footage in one leak usually tell working developers. Gameplay capture with traversal and stealth takedowns exercises animation blending, which is how movement clips join smoothly, plus collision, which is how the character contacts walls, and AI perception, which is how enemies detect the player. Placeholder clips with discrete skills and unusual weapons exercise combat logic, VFX hooks where visual effects attach, and tuning parameters. Think of the first as a road test and the second as bench tests for parts.

In my view, the interesting technical question is not the umbrella weapon itself but what it implies about controls and networking budgets. Wall scaling plus stealth kills plus co-op on iOS and Android means sustained locomotion sync to keep both players seeing the same movement, shared enemy awareness, and kill validation that tolerates lag, all inside tight thermal and memory limits for open-world streaming, which is loading a large map in pieces as you move. AAA scope on mobile rarely fails on art direction. It strains on consistent behavior across different phone chips and touch-first movement. Leaks do not document a shipped design. They document exploration, and even unverified clips help show how much core Assassin's Creed play of climb, observe, strike and escape can survive on a new platform with a second player added. If that design space is still active, whether under Jade or another codename, the work visible here will transfer.