Last week, Ubisoft announced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was released between November and February 2025. Although this came as a surprise to gamers, within the company the expected -close this and it was much needed.
Officially, Ubisoft attributed the delay to the need to “spin and update,” as well as experience with the release of Star Wars Outlaws. These claims are true, but the in-house development team has been pushing for the game to be delayed for months, but their pleas fell on deaf ears until the release of Outlaws .
A letter from Yves Guillemot indicated that sales of Star Wars Outlaws were “below expectations”, and critics gave the game a score of 76 out of 100 on Metacritic (with an even lower user score of 5.4). And the sale of only about 1 million copies caused fear among the management of Ubisoft, which led not only to the transfer of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but also to the return of the company’s games to Steam, which the developers have wanted for many years.
The reasons for Shadows’ delay are complex and include development schedule issues, the need for rework, and cultural and historical aspects, particularly regarding Japanese audiences.
As he writes Tom HendersonYasuke is not going to be removed despite the dissatisfaction of some. However, sources say that the team is actively dealing with many historical and cultural issues that started to arise after external playtests, and became even more urgent after massive feedback after the news. This includes changes to Yasuke’s story and his in-game portrayal, fixing architectural details, and ensuring the game is historically accurate while remaining responsive. on the Assassin’s Creed universe.
It’s odd that these are issues that should have been resolved before the game was even announced, especially given Ubisoft’s strict approval process. Sources say that historical experts were brought in much later than usual for a game of this size, and there were also misunderstandings between teams and efforts to bypass approval processes to meet deadlines.
As for polishing the game and getting rid of bugs, everything is very clear here. At the moment, the game is not yet ready for release, and, according to enthusiasts, additional time will be needed to implement some changes in mechanics and gameplay elements. While these issues have been noted in recent playtests and mock reviews, resolving them is a final development phase that will take a bit longer.
These are not new problems for the team. The seven developers who worked on Shadows said that they had been pushing for a move for a long time, and that their position was heard at other studios in the company. Ultimately, the delay is due to the tight development schedule and the need to solve problems that caused deadlines.
Why Ubisoft management continues to ignore developers at almost every level will be decided by Ubisoft’s executive committee and board of directors during their review – even though 80 % of 40 Ubisoft developers surveyed believe that this will not lead to change or layoffs.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on February 14, 2025. Although pre-orders have not reached Valhalla levels, the numbers are still stable and will likely increase with the Steam release.
