Dead by Daylight, Control, and McDonald's all got "boarded" to promote Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launched on July 9 with one of the more unusual marketing stunts in recent memory — social media accounts for Dead by Daylight, Control, SteelSeries, Epic Games Store, and even McDonald's were "taken over" by Black Flag branding, posting in-character about being boarded by pirates.

Each account played along with the bit, flying the game's signature black pirate flag and claiming their feeds had been boarded. Epic Games Store went further, swapping its profile picture and banner to Black Flag-themed imagery. McDonald's leaned into the nautical angle with a pun about sailing the "Hi-C's." Ubisoft's own titles — Watch Dogs, Rabbids, and For Honor — also joined in, though that's less surprising given they share a corporate parent. On top of the social campaign, the official Assassin's Creed account dropped a free redemption code — ASC-BFR-PMK-000 — that unlocks a pet monkey to roam your ship in-game.

Black Flag Resynced is a remaster of the 2013 original, widely considered one of the best entries in the Assassin's Creed series. The pirate-themed open-world game built a devoted fanbase over the years, and the remaster has been long anticipated. IGN scored it 9/10, calling it "more than just a shinier version of the same game you remember" and saying it brings the original up to today's standards. The game is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

How Ubisoft convinced competing studios and fast food chains to hand over their social accounts isn't clear, but the stunt has generated genuine buzz. Players are already talking about the monkey code, and the campaign's playful tone has landed well — which, for a game launching into a crowded summer, is exactly what Ubisoft needed.