Assassin’s Creed Shadows was not delayed for the reason fans think claims insider-GameCentral-Entertainment – Metro

Assassin’s Creed Shadows – things have not been going smoothly (Ubisoft)

As Star Wars Outlaws is rumoured to have only sold 1 million copies in a month, and insider reveals the complex reasons for Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ delay.

The delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows into 2025 wasn’t the most unbelievable piece of news this year – big games get pushed back all the time and this is only until February – but the reasons for it being delayed appear to be many and complicated.

Shadows has been controversial ever since it revealed that one of the two playable characters is African samurai Yasuke. Even though he was a real person this has led to a lot of nebulous complaints about historical inaccuracy and some equally vague apologies from Ubisoft, but no indication of what they’re intending to change.

The controversy, particularly in terms of how the game is received in Japan, does seem to be a part of the reason for the delay but the biggest issue, as Ubisoft themselves intimated, is that they’re worried that Shadows will suffer the same fate as Star Wars Outlaws – which is rumoured to have sold only 1 million copies in the last month.

Was Star Wars Outlaws a flop?

A million sales may sound like a lot but it’s not for a game that will likely have cost over $200 million to make, not including the very expensive Star Wars licence. Ubisoft themselves have described the game’s launch as ‘softer’ than they would hope and said that they will learn from its problems when releasing Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

The one million figure was suggested by website Insider Gaming, which makes the comparison with Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which was smaller in scale and budget than most other games in the series and yet sold five million copies in three months.

Ubisoft is currently doing their best to turn Outlaws into a long-term seller, with new updates and DLC planned, but they’ll be aware that most new games are only sold at full prices for the first few months and that Ubisoft titles have a particular reputation for heavy discounts – something which seems inevitable for Outlaws, with Black Friday approaching.

Ensuring the same thing does not happen to Shadows is now Ubisoft’s number one priority, with Insider Gaming suggesting that the delay was not only expected by the developers but that they campaigned for it to happen. Supposedly they were ignored until the launch of Outlaws, at which point Ubisoft execs started to panic.

Not only was Outlaws’ performance responsible for Shadows delay but apparently it was the reason that Ubisoft went back to making its games available on Steam, rather than just its own PC store.

What are the historical inaccuries in Assassin’s Creed Shadows?

But while the developers apparently want to use the extra time to address issues of historical inaccuracy there are still no specific example of exactly what, beyond a vague reference to ‘architectural details.’

Although the game is only loosely based on fact (the portrayal of ninja, in particular, seem to have little basis in reality) it seems no more or less so than other Assassin’s Creed games.

However, it’s suggested that Ubisoft brought in historians to advise on the game far later than usual for such a project, which seems strange given how unique and complicated Japanese culture can seem from a Western perspective.

‘Miscommunication between teams and cutting corners when it came to the approval process of assets to meet deadlines,’ was also apparently a problem when it came to historical accuracy.

The final issue was apparently more mundane: bugs. Supposedly the game is ‘currently not at the stage it needs to be for release.’ However, there’s also talk of ‘tweaks’ to gameplay mechanics, which were criticised in recent playtests.

It all paints the picture of a rushed and disorganised development that absolutely did need the delay, in order to have any chance of setting things right.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will now be released for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC on February 14, 2025.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows – the game’s portrayal of shinobi is straight out of a Sega coin-op (Ubisoft

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