Octopus Overlords

Ubisoft has announced the surprise delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows. Instead of launching on November 15 as planned, the game is now slated to come out on February 14, 2025.

"Assassin's Creed Shadows will now be released on February 14, 2025," Ubisoft said. "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.

"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."

Ubisoft also seems to be stepping back from its commitment to the Epic Games Store, saying Assassin's Creed Shadows will be available on on Steam on launch day.

If you pre-ordered the Collector’s Edition of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and were expecting to play the game three days before its general release, according to a new post on the RPG series’ official Discord this will no longer be possible. Previously, Ubisoft confirmed that the release date for the new stealth RPG had been delayed and that all pre-orders would be refunded. The Far Cry and Rainbow Six Siege developer also said that all players would be able to access the game at the same time on launch day. However, this new update, from a longstanding Ubisoft community developer, makes it clearer that AC Shadows’ early-access period has been scrapped. It also confirms another previous Ubisoft announcement that the plans to launch a season pass for Assassin’s Creed Shadows have been canceled.

The developer confirmed the price drop in a Discord post, telling fans it would now cost $229.99 instead of $279.99 and no longer contain a handful of the bonuses originally announced.
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The Collector's Edition now includes the game, a statue of dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke, an art book, a life sized replica of Naoe's katana tsuba, a world map, wall scroll, and two lithographs for the $229.99 price tag.

Scraper wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2024 2:12 pm Something tells me this game will be a buggy mess for the first 6 months.

jztemple2 wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2024 2:39 pm

Scraper wrote: Tue Oct 22, 2024 2:12 pm Something tells me this game will be a buggy mess for the first 6 months.

Or maybe that was why it was delayed for several months, slipping into 2025.

It's a little embarrassing to admit but I am sometimes paralyzed by choices in RPGs. In fact, I am currently in the midst of a Very Big Situation in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty (if you've played it, you'll know what I mean, and if you haven't I'm not going to spoil it), and it is absolutely killing me. Which isn't to say that I don't appreciate the freedom to choose my own destiny, but sometimes it's nice to just lie back and let the currents take you where they may.

People who share that feeling as they're forced to choose this guy over that guy may appreciate a clever new addition Ubisoft has cooked up for Assassin's Creed Shadows called "canon mode," that literally takes the choices out of your hands.

"Choices come more into play when recruiting allies and romance some of the characters," director Jonathan Dumont said during a recent AMA on Reddit. "Since the fan base is divided on branching dialogues, we have incorporated an option called Canon Mode which allows you to play the game with choices already made for you, to give you a choice free experience. Hope this makes it fun for everyone."

article writer wrote:Which isn't to say that I don't appreciate the freedom to choose my own destiny, but sometimes it's nice to just lie back and let the currents take you where they may.

YellowKing wrote: Wed Dec 11, 2024 9:42 pm

article writer wrote:Which isn't to say that I don't appreciate the freedom to choose my own destiny, but sometimes it's nice to just lie back and let the currents take you where they may.

Wouldn't just arbitrarily making a choice be "letting the currents take you where they may?"

I don't really care if this is a feature or not, and if it helps some people sleep at night more power to them, but I confess I still find the concept puzzling. I mean, if your choices are going to somehow lessen your game experience, or lead to inconsistencies in future sequels, that's a designer problem, not a player problem.

Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed again, as part of a "strategic update" that will see it "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders."

"As part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging day-one experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows," Ubisoft said in a statement.

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2025 2:09 pm Game release has been delayed to March 20

Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed again, as part of a "strategic update" that will see it "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders."

"As part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging day-one experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows," Ubisoft said in a statement.

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2025 2:09 pm Game release has been delayed to March 20

Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed again, as part of a "strategic update" that will see it "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders shareholders."

"As part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging day-one experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows," Ubisoft said in a statement.

raydude wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 12:22 pm

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2025 2:09 pm Game release has been delayed to March 20

Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed again, as part of a "strategic update" that will see it "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders shareholders."

"As part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging day-one experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows," Ubisoft said in a statement.

FTFY

Rumpy wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 3:00 pm I kind of was expecting another delay at this point, given much of the controversy surrounding it. But the statement about 'transformational strategic and capitalistic options' makes it sound like they want to add loads of microtransanctions or even NFTs. And Ubisoft has been strongly pushing NFTs.

Paris, January 9, 2025 – Following the strategic and execution reviews initiated by the Executive Committee a few months ago, Ubisoft is taking decisive steps to reshape the Group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximize value creation.

Ubisoft announced today that it has appointed leading advisors to review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders. This process will be overseen by the independent members of the Board of Directors. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and once a transaction materializes.

Operationally, the Company will continue to drive significant cost reductions, together with a highly selective approach to investments, and now expects to exceed €200 million in reduction of its fixed cost base by FY2025-26 vs. FY2022-23 on an annualized basis. In December, XDefiant was discontinued and three production studios in high-cost geographies were closed.

Additionally, as part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging Day-1 experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This additional time will allow the team to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months and help create the best conditions for launch by continuing to engage closely with the increasingly positive Assassin’s Creed community. The game is now scheduled for March 20.

Q3 FY2024-25 net bookings are now expected at around €300 million primarily reflecting lower than expected Holiday sales, mainly for Star Wars Outlaws, as well as the discontinuation of XDefiant.

Ubisoft still expects approximately break-even non-IFRS operating income and free cash flow for FY2024-25. Net bookings are now expected to come in at around €1.9 billion, and include new partnership opportunities for Ubisoft’s games and franchises as well as for the monetization of the streaming rights acquired last fiscal year.

Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, said “We made good progress on the strategic and execution reviews initiated a few months ago and are confident that this will position Ubisoft for a stronger future. We have taken decisive steps to reshape the Group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximize value creation. We also recently appointed leading advisors and are actively exploring various strategic and capitalistic options to unlock the full value potential of our assets. We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises.

Additionally, we are all behind our teams’ efforts to create the most ambitious Assassin’s Creed opus of the franchise and made the decision to provide an extra month of development to Shadows in order to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months that will enable us to fully deliver on the potential of the game and finish the year on a strong note.”

1. We need investment capital;
2. We're firing loads of people to cut costs; and
3. Assassin's Creed Shadows is still a bit shite, so we're giving that team one more month to get their act together before we fire them too.

jztemple2 wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 3:27 pm

raydude wrote: Fri Jan 10, 2025 12:22 pm

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Jan 09, 2025 2:09 pm Game release has been delayed to March 20

Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed again, as part of a "strategic update" that will see it "review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders shareholders."

"As part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging day-one experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows," Ubisoft said in a statement.

FTFY

When I was working in my aerospace job I attended a week long middle management training course. At one point we had a speaker who asked the question, "What is your job goal?". There was the usual responses of launching the Space Shuttle safely, etc. But he said no, our most important job was to make money for the shareholders. And that really is the right answer, much as people might not like it. If you're a big corporation like Ubisoft, if you are in middle or upper management your primary goal is to make money for the shareholders. It is how you achieve that goal that makes it interesting.

Ubisoft is showing off the Assassin’s Creed Shadows DLC you can get at no extra cost, but only if you pre-order the game. While the Far Cry and Rainbox Six studio has done away with the Shadows season pass, it is also offering some extra content to anyone purchasing the game ahead of release. So if you want to pre-order AC Shadows anyway, or like the sound of free extras, Ubisoft has an opportunity for you.