Two of the most popular franchises in the world announced a collaboration today at Gamescom, and it's a bizarre one - Final Fantasy 15 and Assassin's Creed Origins will be paying homage to each other with content in both games. The announcement was made by the development teams behind both games, including Final Fantasy 15 director Hajime Tabata and Assassin's Creed Origins director Ashraf Ismail, and was officially unveiled alongside artwork showcasing both games' protagonists at Gamescom earlier today.

The collaboration will begin on August 30, as Final Fantasy 15 players who have obtained the Dream Egg from the Moogle Chocobo Carnival event will be gifted a free Assassin outfit for Noctis. The next day, Final Fantasy 15 will release free DLC called the Assassin's Festival. The town of Lestallum will apparently be given a makeover signalling the arrival of the festival, and players will be granted access to new quests, items, and features, including abilities that will allow Noctis to explore the world of Final Fantasy 15 in a much more assassin-esque manner.

Not much is known about what sort of Final Fantasy 15 content will be making its way over to Assassin's Creed Origins later this year, although the artwork released today definitely contains a major hint - Bayek is wielding Noctis' famous Engine Blade, a weapon that looks like it will be making an appearance in ancient Egypt before the year is out.

The collaboration is apparently the result of over three years of planning, stemming from an informal meeting three years ago where both development teams expressed the fact that they were fans of the other's work. Assassin's Creed Origins' Ismail expanded:

"This collaboration is the result of being huge fans. There's a lot of respect between the two teams and we couldn't be more thrilled with the opportunity to pay homage to each other's work."

final fantasy 15 assassins creed origins collaboration announced

Final Fantasy 15 just keeps adding content - and expanding its universe beyond the constraints of console gaming - while Assassin's Creed Origins continues to resemble the next step in a franchise that has been a little stagnant over the past few years. The collaboration also marks the union of two of gaming's biggest names, a partnership that could continue to pay dividends down the road should the newly announced content succeed over the next few months.

Final Fantasy 15 is available now for PS4 and Xbox One, with a PC release coming in early 2018. Assassin's Creed Origins will release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 27, 2017.

Source: Ubisoft