Ubisoft has announced a dramatic delay to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which will now launch on 14th February 2025 instead of its previously planned arrival this November. Existing pre-orders will be refunded.
The publisher has always targeted the year’s key holiday sales period for its Assassin’s Creed blockbusters, making this move highly unusual. In a statement, Ubisoft said the game’s content was complete – as you’d hope, seven weeks ahead of its intended launch date – but would now receive further polish.
Crucially, Ubisoft said the delay could be blamed on “softer than expected launch for Star Wars Outlaws”, its previous big budget blockbuster for which it had high hopes, but then launched in August to lukewarm sales. The publisher was acting now, it said, based on “learnings” from that game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will now launch on Steam on day one – a move the publisher has indicated will continue with other releases going forward.
In another change, Shadows will now ditch the franchise’s established season pass model. The game’s first expansion will be granted free to anyone who pre-orders the game now, however.
“While the game is feature complete, the learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide
additional time to further polish the title,” Ubisoft said in a statement today. “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.”
Today’s delay also marked Ubisoft’s first comments on the performance of Star Wars Outlaws, which it says had received a “solid” critical response that had not translated into sales.
“In response to player feedback, Ubisoft’s development teams are currently fully mobilised to swiftly implement a series of updates to polish and improve the player experience in order to engage a large audience during the
holiday season to position Star Wars Outlaws as a strong long-term performer. The game will be available on Steam on 21st November.”
Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell wrote that the game’s “stripped-back Ubisoft formula is admirable yet doomed” in our Star Wars Outlaws review last month.
More to follow.