Assassin's Creed 3 Teaser Image Depicts MMA Fight

Ubisoft has released a very strange Assassin's Creed 3 teaser image. It shows Desmond, the present-day protagonist of the game, watching a mixed-martial arts fight in a crowded arena.

The image was released through the official Assassin's Creed 3 website yesterday. The player community unlocked it by playing a series of webgames called "Hacked History." These Flash games challenged players to find hidden items throughout three historical paintings. Once the items had been found by enough players, this teaser was revealed.



It seems that this teaser image, in turn, has some secrets of its own. Users at NeoGAF noticed some numbers embedded throughout the picture. Using the numbers, they deciphered a quote from Desmond: "If the first civ couldn't save the world, how the hell are we supposed to swing it?" There was also a link to a video not accessible outside the UK - presumably it's the Desmond trailer released yesterday.

Let's go back to the image, though. Is there anything significant about this scene by itself? Does Desmond engage in a bit of MMA during the campaign to blow off some steam? Is this a minigame? Or does he have some other reason for being at this stadium? If nothing else, this image suggests that he won't spend the whole game hooked up to an animus or exploring ancient vaults.