Assassin's Creed Odyssey's first live Epic Mercenary event has been cancelled

Assassin's Creed Odyssey was due to launch its first live event this week, setting players forth across Ancient Greece in search of limited-time japes. However, thanks to unspecified technical issues, Ubisoft has been forced to admit defeat and cancel the whole thing.

??Last week, Ubisoft announced that Odyssey's live events - an opportunity "to face challenging battles and earn Epic and Legendary rewards" - would alternate between Epic Mercenary and Epic Ship contracts. Things would get underway, it said, on October 16th.

All seemed golden when players logged into Odyssey yesterday, with in-game notifications announcing the arrival of Damais the Indifferent as Epic Mercenary target number one. Unfortunately, despite players' best efforts to find him, Damais was nowhere to be seen.

Following an inquiry from Kotaku, a Ubisoft spokesperson confirmed that "the production team is investigating and hopes to have more information on an ETA for a fix."

Unfortunately, it seems that a fix wasn't to be found; the official Assassin's Creed Twitter feed has now announced, amid apologies, that this week's live event is cancelled. "Rumor has it that Damais bailed at the very last minute," it said, "Apparently, he was intimidated by the idea of facing the misthios. He'll give you a fair fight as soon as we track him down."

Although Damais will remain missing in action for the time being, Ubisoft did confirm that live events will resume next week, from October 23rd. "Don't let your guard down just yet," it warned, "as an epic ship is expected to arrive soon. Keep an eye on the Aegean Sea".