It has been rumored for years, before finally becoming an announcement and then a reality with the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Ubisoft are launching a new hub for all experiences Assassin’s Creed, one that can be accessed from within the game and that connects multiple titles into one somehow. So how it work? Is it like the recent Call of Duty launcher, a unified platform like Fortnite or Roblox, or something else entirely? Let’s find out in this deep dive for the brand new Animus Hub in Assassin’s Creed!
First of all – what is the Animus Hub? Let’s take a step back, actually – what is Animus? Without boring you with all the small details, the Animus is a revolutionary technology in the fictional modern day of Assassin’s Creed, launcher by megacorporation Abstergo – an entity that’s been known since the very first game, launched in 2007. This is effectively a highly advanced virtual reality device, allowing players to revisit their ancestors’ memories from times long gone, being able to effectively relive their stories and explore their surroundings via what’s coded in the DNA. Or, for simplicity’s sake: it’s the plot device that explains how come the player visits vastly different time periods in these games.
The modern day story has had an enormous importance in the first games, especially the ones on the 7th generation of consoles, leading up to an explosive finale of sorts in 2012’s Assassin’s Creed III. After that, the various 8th generation titles like Black Flag, Unity and Syndicate shied away from the modern day plot a bit, as Ubisoft realized that a lot of players have a hard time keeping up with the intricacies of that sci-fi angle and would rather just be immersed in awesome historical pieces. 2017’s served as a soft reboot for the franchise, with the virtual reality aspects of the Animus becoming a bit more prevalent. This eventually culminated in 2020’s Valhalla, where the modern day plot went full circle, tying back to some of the events of Assassin’s Creed III, leaving fans with a lot of questions and doubts in the process.
2025’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows is then yet another soft reboot of the Animus concept and all the modern day plot. As soon as we boot the game for the first time, we’re not welcomed by something in theme of the feudal Japan the game explores – but instead, in the brand new Animus. Well, the Dark Animus actually, a system hacked by a mysterious force that allows us to access things that Abstergo never meant us to see. Spooky! The first thing the player sees is the Memories section. Immediately, the player gets to choose between one of the available experiences – Naoe and Yasuke in Japan in the 1500’s, Eivor in Norway and England in the 800’s, and so forth.
Yep, one of the main features of Animus Hub is a way to launch the various games from a single, unified platform. It’s not actually a new launcher or an overlay, it’s part of the Assassin’s Creed Shadows executable and will be, presumably, the same in future installments of the franchise. By putting the so-called “Period 2” titles (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, Mirage and Shadows) into an easy to read timeline, players can see a quick recap of the eras, which game was set when, and seamlessly launch another game from within Shadows. Older Assassin’s Creed games are not present, not even other last-gen titles like Syndicate, Unity or the Chronicles spin-off titles. With Syndicate just recently having received a handy new 60fps patch on current-gen consoles, I could see that one, in particular, joining the roster.
The Animus Hub also serves as a further separation between the historic elements of the games and the modern day content. From now on, nearly all the modern day plot will happen inside the Animus Hub, with future loredumps, cutscenes and so on to be found in here – in a new section called Vault. Whereas even in the last “big” Assassin’s Creed, Valhalla, Eivor’s adventures were frequently interrupted to focus on the modern day plot, from now they are separate matters entirely. Ubisoft seemingly wants to keep everyone happy here: the many players who aren’t interested in the modern day plot will be able to experience more “pure” games, while those who do will be able to quickly access all the relevant lore, cutscenes and events from a brand new hub. That is, lore-wise, the biggest implication of the Animus Hub. A new plot, only happening in front of the players who want to dig into this hub, no longer contaminating the historic experiences of the main titles. Some level of modern day shenanigans still go down in Shadows as well, but the idea is that it’ll evolve beyond the game’s launch, and it’ll do so in this hub, predominantly.
Remember the daily/weekly missions and anomalies from Valhalla and Odyssey? All that was, effectively, moved into the Animus Hub as well – in the Anomalies page of the Projects menu. There no longer is a special vendor selling these quests, nor a convoluted plot device to somehow make this radiant content part of the historic context. Via this Animus Hub, which is never more than two button clicks away, players can find a weekly set of so-called Anomalies. These are special events, enemies, oddities, special loot and so forth that the player can find across the game’s vast map – though the missions also pop up on Shadow’s vast Target Board. Completing these allows the players to finish certain permanent battle passes, featuring unique gear, new cosmetics and more – currently for Shadows but certainly beyond as well, in the future. As of the launch of Shadows, there’s only 2 passes to get through, with players only being to level them up one at a time.
One of the rewards for these passes are the Exchange Keys, which can be spent, predictably, in the Exchance page of the Projects menu. This is effectively the substitute for Reda’s shop in Valhalla, as this too now happens entirely located in the Animus Hub itself. Players here can spend the hard-earned Exchange Keys on the one rotating “free” item of the day, and on the weekly rotation of 3 objects as well. These are usually individual pieces from the paid sets of cosmetics over at the Store, allowing players to get bits and pieces of paid cosmetics, optional paid weapons, unique horses and more without spending a single cent – with the currency being the players’ time, if anything. Shadow’s vast map already features some Exchange Keys, scattered across the map, giving players a bit of a headstart. Basically, it’s the way it was in Valhalla, just located within the new Animus Hub instead.
What will the future of the Animus Hub bring? Surely, more Assassin’s Creed titles will be added to the Memories page, including the rumored Black Flag remake, the upcoming witch-themed chapter codenamed Hexe and more. New passes, new dailies and weeklies, will encourage players to keep logging into their Assassin’s Creed of choice – perhaps, even multiple games will have challenges at the same time, to the displeasure of our hard drives that will have a tough time keeping these 100GB or so games installed in bulk. New lore dumps and even playable parts will surely be added to the Vault, further separating the historic plot of these games from the sci-fi parts. One thing’s for sure: Ubisoft promises every single piece of content in the Hub itself being free, now and in the future.
Frankly, as it stands, the Animus Hub is nothing but a simple player engagement bait, but the start is decent enough. It restructures the daily and weekly challenges into a single system that rewards long-term commitment – a more than plausible reality, considering how large some of these games are. It keeps the modern day plot, one of the most controversial aspects of Assassin’s Creed, in its own separate space, giving players the option to ignore it easier – or, alternatively, help them do an organized deep dive. And it’s not an annoying new launcher to install, there’s no new accounts to make – it’s all within Assassin’s Creed Shadows and future games in the franchise from the start.
As of March 2025, launch month of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, there really isn’t too much content just yet. The predictable rotation of dailies and weeklies, two separate passes that will take several weeks, if not months, to complete. So far, a minimal amount of lore and cutscenes, but that will be expanded upon in time. Is Animus Hub an essential addition to the franchise? So far, absolutely not, as it mostly just reorganizes things that were already present in Valhalla, Odyssey and Origins in particular. But the system seems solid enough, and despite it being an evident game-as-a-service hook, it’s hardly intrusive, plus the promise of long-running free additions is fairly intriguing for fans of the franchise like me. Now the ball is in Ubisoft’s court to turn Animus Hub into something special in the years ahead.
What do you think of the Animus Hub? Is it a needless addition to already massive games or is it something that can further elevate the experience? Let us know in the comments below, or hit us up in one of our many platforms – our forum, over at YouTube, on Bluesky, you name it!
