LONDON: The popular “Assassin’s Creed” video game franchise is set to return to the Middle East, with the latest title in the series, “Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” reportedly set in medieval Baghdad.

The news was broken by a French YouTube channel and later corroborated by Bloomberg writer Jason Schreier, citing a source familiar with the matter.

In February this year, Bloomberg reported that the next installment of the Ubisoft series, then codenamed “Assassin’s Creed Rift,” was set to be an expansion of the previous game “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla,” and not a standalone title.

Bloomberg reported at the time that the game would not be “a massive open-world role-playing game like previous recent entries, focusing more instead on stealth gameplay.”

Those plans appear to have changed, with “Mirage” set to return to the series' roots in the 9th century Middle Eastern metropolis, featuring an assassin called Basim as its main character, first introduced to players in “Valhalla.”

Artwork leaked on the fan site The Codex Network appears to confirm Basim’s presence as the protagonist, as well as a subtitle “The Forty Thieves Quest,” which draws on a Syrian story from “One Thousand and One Nights.”

Schreier added that the game was set to be released early in 2023. There have been 12 “Assassin’s Creed” games since the initial title's launch in 2007.

That game, starring the fictional assassin Altair Ibn La’Ahad, was also set in the Middle East, comprising missions across the Holy Land in the late 12th century between Jerusalem, Damascus, and Acre, and featuring historical characters from the Crusader period.