Assassin's Creed Shadows gets a surprise delay to 2025
The next Assassin's Creed game will now launch in February, delayed from the original release date of November.
25th Sep 2024 17:04
Images via Ubisoft
Assassin's Creed Shadows gets a surprise delay to 2025
The next Assassin's Creed game will now launch in February, delayed from the original release date of November.
25th Sep 2024 17:04
Images via Ubisoft
If you were hoping to be carting about feudal Japan as an assassin this November, think again. Ubisoft's next Assassin's Creed has been delayed until February 14, as confirmed by Ubisoft in an emergency investor's call.
Learned lessons
Assassin's Creed Shadows was originally supposed to launch on November 15, but the team has since decided that the game clearly needs a little more time in the oven. This comes shortly after news that Ubisoft also recently cancelled press previews of the title, which were supposed to be held this week.
In a publicly issued investor statement, Ubisoft explains that Shadows is currently feature complete, but learnings from the launch of Star Wars Outlaws have led them to believe that the game could do with a little more polish.
"Despite solid ratings (Metacritic 76) and user scores across the First Party and Epic stores (3.9/5) that reflect an immersive and authentic Star Wars universe, Star Wars Outlaws initial sales proved softer than expected," Ubisoft explains.
We criticised Outlaws for its weak open world and inflexible stealth mechanics, so it's hard to agree that the lower critic scores were entirely down to bugs. That said, it seems that Ubisoft is set on winning back fans with a watertight launch of the new Assassin's Creed.
That's further shown by a demonstration of seeming goodwill. In the same investor report, Ubisoft explains that Assassin's Creed Shadows will be ditching the series' standard Season Pass monetisation model.
"We are departing from the traditional Season Pass model," the company says. "All players will be able to enjoy the game at the same time on February 14 and those who preorder the game will be granted the first expansion for free."
Previously, players were required to pay for a relatively expensive premium pass that granted them access to additional story expansions and other cosmetic items. This return to the old ways of publishing content seems like another way to curry favour with fans and prove to investors that Ubisoft still means business.
That hasn't prevented the stock price from plummeting, however, which has seen a steady decline of 40% in the last six months. Still, while we won't be role-playing as assassins in 2024, at least we've got our 2025 Valentine's Day plans sorted in advance.
About The Author
Joshua Boyles
Joshua is the Guides Editor at GGRecon. After graduating with a BA (Hons) degree in Broadcast Journalism, he previously wrote for publications such as FragHero and GameByte. You can often find him diving deep into fantasy RPGs such as Skyrim and The Witcher, or tearing it up in Call of Duty and Battlefield. He's also often spotted hiking in the wilderness, usually blasting Arctic Monkeys.
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