Speaking to GamesRadar+ as part of our Big in 2023 showcase for Assassin's Creed Mirage, creative director Stéphane Boudon said that while "a convergence of several inputs" helped shape the creation of Mirage, the first in their mind is the voice of the community.2017's Origins marked a notable departure from the original Assassin's Creed formula, adjusting the series closer to a traditional RPG and moving on from many of the ideas that had been present in the games from their inception all the way up to Assassin's Creed Syndicate.But after Odyssey's world eclipsed Origins' and Valhalla grew larger still, fans wanted another change of tack:"Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first ACs in a more intimate scale.That "more intimate scale" was a necessity when Altair took his first shaky, free-running steps, but Basim's story makes a more deliberate choice to embrace that scope.It's also set in a similar part of the world, returning to the Middle East via 13th-century Baghdad (rather than the Holy Land) and concerning itself directly with the Assassin's Order, rather than the proto-killers that more recent games have dabbled with."