Ubisoft delays Assassin's Creed Shadows to 2025 following Star Wars Outlaws' poor reception

[midian182]

What just happened? It's fair to say that Star Wars Outlaws was not the critical and commercial success that Ubisoft expected. Having taken note of the lukewarm sales and reception, the company has decided to postpone the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which will now be arriving on February 14, 2025.

A statement from Ubisoft franchise executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté says that more time is needed to polish and refine the experience in Assassin's Creed Shadows while also further pushing some of the key features.

Assassin's Creed Shadows will now release February 14, 2025. pic.twitter.com/J2ah7kkytW

– Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) September 25, 2024

AC Shadows was set to release on November 12, around seven weeks away, so it's pretty late in the day for a postponement. But it seems Ubisoft's last big release played a big part in the decision.

In a letter to investors, Ubisoft wrote, "While the game [Shadows] is feature complete, the learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time to further polish the title."

"This will enable the biggest entry in the franchise to fully deliver on its ambition, notably by fulfilling the promise of our dual protagonist adventure, with Naoe and Yasuke bringing two very different gameplay styles."

Also read: Star Wars Outlaws GPU Benchmark

Ubisoft promised a lot with Outlaws, which it called the first open-world Star Wars game. But it arrived to mostly mediocre reviews from critics, and many players were even less generous. Ubisoft admitted that the game had a "softer than expected launch." Having just finished Outlaws, this writer would agree that it's a 6/10 at best, with too many repetitive and irritating sections.

The investor note also reveals that Assassin's Creed Shadows will be released on all platforms, including Steam on day 1. This will be the case for all of Ubisoft's games going forward; the company has spent the last few years keeping its day 1 PC releases exclusive to the Epic Games Store.

Ubisoft returned to Steam in late 2022 after many years of absence with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, two years after it launched. More of the company's titles have followed since then – Star Wars Outlaws comes to Steam on November 21, the same day its first DLC hits – but Assassin's Creed Shadows will mark the return of Ubisoft day-1 releases to Valve's storefront.

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Ubisoft delays Assassin's Creed Shadows to 2025 following Star Wars Outlaws' poor reception

 

[AlexIL]

It took economic recession for Ubisoft to realize and players to vote with wallets that the era of empty promises and half baked betas disguised as ready is over. Gamers fed up with that and don't have neither patience nor time to spend or hear another lie why this and that so avoiding franchise or a company entirely. Personally I avoid all Ubisoft games. They were no Steam and requirement to have their app and register account. Same with EA. Thanks I'll pass on that. Forgot last time I played Ubisoft game at all. Not a big miss with the quality of their releases.

 

[Axeia]

Just enough time to let the already massive amounts of bad publicity around this game blow over? Smart!
Perhaps if they remove some of the things the Japanese are offended about in that time it will stand a better chance.

 

[Inthenstus]

Ubisoft needs to go bankrupt already. Horrible policies, and uber woke.

 

[Hom3r]

I hope it will be better than Black Flag!

Ubisoft is not doing too well arent they? Stock is really low and when was the last good game?

 

[Peter Farkas]

I hope it will be better than Black Flag!

Ubisoft is not doing too well aren't they? Stock is really low and when was the last good game?

their stock hit rock bottom. I wouldn't be surprised if an acquisition to be announced at this point or worst case a bankruptcy. Check their stock for the last 5 years. Noone can say this happened overnight because of a few games. They went lower and lower for years and they could have changed direction at any point. Investor are not interested in them. End game kind of stuff for them.

 

[Hom3r]

Personally I have played a few good Ubi games, long time ago tho!

I hate their game launcher too much. I feel like they should leave Ubisoft Connect behind and be on Steam, Epic and GOG instead.

 

[NumberNine]

FarCry 5 was the last thing I remember Ubisoft launching that was ultimately developed into a decent video game, and even then it only became a decent value years after launch with deep discounts. I didn't finish New Dawn after realizing it was a cash grab borrowing hype from a superior game.

 

[Subset6]

Outlaws was great, had a blast with it. Big mistake is no day 1 steam launch, they also really need to work at removing the requirement for that quite terrible Ubisoft Connect App requirement for titles on steam as well. If they can do both of those things that would go a long way to more sales on the PC.

 

[Stingy McDuck]

"Steam Release", because we probably will still need the Ubisoft Launcher, the only thing that changes is where we buy the game.

 

[Jarenien]

Poor reception? The game is an effin' masterpiece and all the reviews say so.

 

[VariableSpike]

Definitely not because a sequel to ghost of tsushima got announced, no.....

 

[Watzupken]

Poor reception? The game is an effin' masterpiece and all the reviews say so.

If the reviews are good, that should mean that the game is ready. If it’s ready, why pull it last minute? And the same reviewers that said that this game is good probably also said the same about Starwars Outlaw that sold poorly.

 

[godrilla]

If the reviews are good, that should mean that the game is ready. If it’s ready, why pull it last minute? And the same reviewers that said that this game is good probably also said the same about Starwars Outlaw that sold poorly.

If you pay me I praise it too.

 

[chickenlittle]

Its a pity we dont see good ubisoft games anymore, AC is going down the hill. Meaningless tasks for gamers, poor storyline. Beautiful graphics but poor execution. Please please improve. Im a big fan of AC series but just too sad to see whats going on since odyssey - despite its flaws, still love the scenery and beautiful ancient greece.

 

[Shaitan]

Just enough time to let the already massive amounts of bad publicity around this game blow over? Smart!
Perhaps if they remove some of the things the Japanese are offended about in that time it will stand a better chance.

You mean, like Yasuke?
If they remove him and the LGHD stuff, I'll pre-order.