Are Ubisoft Actually Going To Release A Finished Game This Time?

Ubisoft has decided to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows, which was set to release this October. It will now launch on February 14, 2025. Additionally, the company has revealed that the game will be released on Steam on day 1.

Furthermore, Ubisoft will also ditch the season pass format and early access perks for those who pre-order the game. Instead, players who have already pre-ordered AC Shadows will receive the first expansion for free.

The news broke on September 25, with a press release that explained the reasoning behind the decision to delay Shadows despite already being "feature complete" with Star Wars Outlaws failings having plenty to do.

"The learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time to further polish the title."

click to enlarge

Credit: Ubisoft

It's no secret that Ubisoft was banking on Star Wars Outlaws to be a huge critical and commercial success, but the open-world game failed to set the charts on fire on both fronts.

Outlaws currently has a 76 Metacritic score, which isn't catastrophic, but it's a far cry from the best-reviewed games of the year, which includes Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (92) and Astro Bot (94).

In the sales department, Ubisoft confirmed in the same press release that Outlaws had "softer than expected" sales, which helped the company's decision to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Beyond general criticism of Outlaws, the game was marred with horrendous technical issues, the most egregious one being a bug that forced PS5 players to delete their saved early access data when the game fully launched on August 27.

Regardless of outside controversies in regards to how Ubisoft is depicting feudal Japan, the change has been welcomed by fans, as it moves away from more predatory practices as players would have to fork out upwards of $100 if they wanted to play early or get access to post-launch DLC.

With its new February 14 release date, AC Shadows will not compete with another highly anticipated title, Capcom's Monster Hunter: Wilds, which will be released two weeks later, on February 28.