Into Egypt: next Assassin's Creed leaks

We were on a break! (Entirely topical references for you there). Yes, it appears that Assassin's Creed is back after a year-odd hiatus from its traditionally annual release cycle. Various leaks have it that the game is named Assassin's Creed: Origins, is set in ancient Egypt and looks, well, just like the image above.

Clearly, without official verification a leak needs to be shoved inside a drawer marked "rumours" and eyed with great suspicions, but our stablemates over at Eurogamer seem entirely convinced that the screenshot posted to Reddit out of the blue earlier today is on the money. Three separate sources tell 'em so, they say.

The screen's on the blurry side - looks like a photo of a TV to me - but we can make out a boat, a shield and the text 'Follow Shadya to Khenut's villa.' The latter would seem to confirm the Egyptian setting (Khenut was an Egyptian queen during its fifth dynasty), and the presence of boats hopefully, hopefully suggests a return to series highlight Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag.

EG's sources have also told them that 'Origins' is indeed the name, it's due later this year on console and PC, and also offered the slightly blood-curdling implication that it's a prequel to the series so far is true (a clean break, fiction-wise, strikes me as the best possible move), but I'm definitely very taken with the setting.

Rumours of an Ancient Egyptian prequel have circulated since January 2016.

Fantastic scenery, improbably vast things to climb, a far older society than we've yet seen from these games and, all being well, a really big river. Can we sail the length of the Nile? This is what matters most. Also: will there be mummies? Will there be Mumm-Ra?

If all is as it appears to be (and, again, we don't know that for definite until there's official confirmation) I imagine we'll see more of this at E3. Meantime, a full-size version of the image is here.