LONON: Ubisoft released the latest addition to their renowned series, “Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” on Thursday, taking players back to the mystical landscape of ninth-century Baghdad.
For the first time in the franchise, the game’s performances have been recorded in classical Arabic, BBC reported.
Though previous renditions of the game have been set in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, the central characters have predominantly been voiced by English-speaking actors.
Players now have the option to choose English dialogue. However, Ubisoft encourages them to immerse themselves in a more “authentic” Arab experience.
Mohammed Al-Imam, a representative from Ubisoft’s Middle Eastern and North African branch, told BBC that the language spoken in the game is classical Arabic, a “1,000-plus years old” version “still preserved to this day in schools, academia and news and entertainment.”
Highlighting a longstanding issue, Al-Imam expressed concerns about Arab characters in Western media often being portrayed speaking “broken Arabic,” likening it to non-native speakers caricaturing other languages.
“The intonation and pronunciation are often distorted, a challenge that has irked Arabic(-speaking) audiences for decades,” he said.
To overturn this trend, Ubisoft mandated that “any Arabic line in the game be delivered by someone fluent in the language.”
Al-Imam confirmed that the gaming giant collaborated with several historical experts to ensure an authentic portrayal of the historical settings in “Assassin’s Creed Mirage.”