Assassin's Creed: Black Flag remake is such a badly kept secret it's been leaked by a statue maker who just assumed we all knew it was coming

In days of yore, before we had all this internet nonsense, leaks happened organically, concretely. They happened in printed books and in frantic conversations in the cloisters. In the time of the Roman Republic, unannounced videogames were leaked by loose-lipped sculptors in unguarded moments, out of their gourds on hippocras.

A more civilised age, and one we've recaptured thanks to the good folks at PureArts, a merch-maker that deals in a line of swish Assassin's Creed statues, featuring the likes of Ezio, Altair, Kassandra, Bayek, and all the other hooded murderers you know and love from Ubisoft's long-running Pope-fighting sim.

Back in March (via Insider Gaming), PureArts took to the airwaves to show off its range of AC homunculi, and it wasn't long before eagle-eyed fans noted that one protagonist was strangely absent: AC4's Edward Kenway. They asked what was going on and, in a moment of confusion, one of the hosts seemingly gave the whole game away about the rumoured remake of Black Flag.

"Assassin's Creed fans out there, you should be aware that there is something going on with Edward," said the host, prompting his co-host to quizzically ask if "that" had been announced yet. Undeterred, he pressed on: "I think so… I definitely saw an article about it… there's gonna be something going on with Edward and our PVC, ⅛-scale statue will reflect that accordingly."

Which is about as close as you can skirt to saying 'Yeah those guys are remaking Black Flag and that means Edward's model has changed' without saying it outright, isn't it?

To be fair to PureArts, this is hardly bombshell news. None other than Ubi boss Yves Guillemot was out and about last year saying the company wanted to remake some older AC games, and plenty of people assumed at the time that fan-favourite Black Flag would be top of the list there.

Of course, if we're at the 'merch makers have made tiny plastic men from it' level of game development, you've gotta think that Black Flag remake is just around the corner, no? I wouldn't be surprised to see it rear its head during this year's Summer Geoff Fest, possibly alongside that Splinter Cell remake, just as soon as Ubi figures out which Sam Fisher is which.