Final Fantasy 15 is getting free Assassin's Creed Origins DLC (yes, really)

Ubisoft made a rather surprisingly announcement today, revealing a new team up with Square Enix to bring Assassin's Creed Origins-themed DLC to Final Fantasy 15. That's strange enough on its own, but we also learned from today's announcement that Square Enix and Ubisoft have been teasing this new DLC for months already. This was done through easter eggs that have appeared in three separate trailers released by both companies.

In fact, the easter eggs started appearing as far back as November, in a Final Fantasy 15 trailer from that month. The next tease was in the Assassin's Creed Origins announcement trailer we saw during E3 2017, and then the final easter egg was planted in the newest Assassin's Creed Origins trailer, which debuted this week at Gamescom. In short, Ubisoft and Square Enix have known they were going to do this for a while.

The idea has its roots in an informal meeting between the Final Fantasy 15 and Assassin's Creed development teams three years ago during the Tokyo Game Show. "This collaboration is the result of being huge fans," Ubisoft game director Ashraf Ismail said in today's announcement. "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."

So, what does collaboration mean for fans? On August 30, Final Fantasy 15 players who have the Dream Egg from the Moogle Chocobo Carnival will be gifted an Assassin's Creed outfit for Noctis to wear. On the next day, the town of Lestallum will host the Assassin's Festival, which will include themed items, activities, and a second Assassin's Creed outfit that will "enable Noctis to explore more like an Assassin and even use some of the Assassins' more well-known abilities."

All in all, it sounds like a pretty cool event, and even better is that it's free for all Final Fantasy 15 players. We're not sure yet if this means special Final Fantasy 15 content for Assassin's Creed Origins when that game eventually releases, but hopefully this collaboration turns out to be a two-way street. We'll find out soon enough, as Assassin's Creed Origins is out on October 27.