Assassin's Creed Shadows delayed to February 14th 2025, launching on Steam on Day 1.

Source

Also, Star Wars Outlaws is launching on Steam on November 21st, and they seem to be indicating that they are abandoning their own launcher + EGS exclusivity song-and-dance they've been on over the last few years.

And that, folks, is the sound of a towel being thrown. Gaben wins by doing nothing yet again.

You beat me to it lol.

(Copy/Paste what I said in my previous thread) The fact Star Wars: Outlaws flopped so badly for not to be released on Steam in the first place and this tells me Ubisoft is in panic mode because AC is one of their major titles they cannot screw up. Delaying it from November to February 2025 is the right call. Unfortunately they release the same month than Monster Hunter: Wilds? AC Shadows is so dead in the water. (Not to mention Ghost of Yotei took the thunder right under from Shadows if you ask me)

Steamos was right all along😅

Outlaws bombing made them realize that you can't just patch shit after releasing broken games.

@davillain:

The thing is, I'm not even sure all these sweeteners will help that much. As I said, when someone can sum up a review of a game by saying; "it's a Ubisoft game," and everyone immediately understands and groans, that's a problem.

Ubisoft needs a shake-up, and while this will provide a little jolt, they need a full-blown electric chair treatment.

This is Ubisoft so it will most likely be graphical quality control than gameplay.

Ensuring heads don't collapse into themselves during cutscenes.

I'm definitely hoping they scrap Ubisoft Connect and transfers all purchases to Steam.

It's painful trying to get the launcher to sync with Steam and Xbox app. I had to start 2 new accounts last week so I could redeem Rider's Republic to play with my boys because their original accounts wouldn't link properly...........with just that game. Wildlands worked fine.

And the stock drops another 4,5 % 😅. This company is going down in flames.

@madrocketeer: "Gaben wins by doing nothing yet again."

And this is the advantage to being a privately held company with no shareholders. Steam makes money, and that's good enough. It doesn't need to always make more money now, than it did at this time last year. They can focus all their efforts on making Steam better for users, instead of making it better at making money.

Paradoxically, this strategy keeps leading to revenue growth. Weird.

Out of all thier recent titles, the only one that was good was the $40 metro vania prince of persia game. All thier big budget AAA money mountain 💰 games been sucking and not selling lol Ubisoft smh

The last good Ubisoft game was Ass Creed Black Flag

It really remains to be seen by what is meant by "launches on Steam day one"

If it means it'll incorporate Steam and Ubi Connect DRM then I will simply buy it through Ubi Connect or from a key website.

Great news. Too much games tend to release during the holidays.

@Pedro: yeah a lot of great news i'm reading

✅ More time to polish

✅ Including the biggest PC platform

✅ No more staggered release dates

Consequently, we decided to delay Assassin’s Creed Shadows to February 14, 2025. The game is already playable and of high quality, and has all the features the team wanted to integrate into this ambitious experience. This unusual decision at such an advanced stage is motivated by our desire to offer an optimal experience from launch on all platforms and various PC configurations, and to remove the small frictions we typically used to address in post-launch title updates.

Go Ubisoft!

How many games have launched you know that do this? I can list plenty over the past five years: release broken and fix later.

Sounds like a desperate move to save the company lol

With so much negativity surrounding AC, it's probably not a bad idea.

They likely want to delay further for more research into japanese culture but they needed to avoid Ghost of Yotei as well. Problem is they releasing just before one of the biggest releases of 2025 which is MH Wilds. Ubisoft really fuked up bad.

The RPG ass creed been great as well tbh. Even valhalla.

@sakaixx: Research? More like gamers talking about topics they are not qualified to comment on and believing they are more qualified than experts in the field.

@Pedro: Ubisoft showed a chinese instrument in their last trailer as opposed to a japanese one 😅

@Pedro: some gamers know their culture better than experts hired by ubisoft apparently.

Nice to see AC launch day 1 on steam! Accessibility is king.

This is why the whole "Steam takes too large of a percentage" argument is pointless. Steam moves copies. Period.

You want to sell five million copies at 75% profit, or you want to use your own stupid platform and sell one million copies at 100% profit?

Just pay the fee, say "thanks, Steam", and count your money. Disagree with it on principle and idealism all you like, though.

And frankly I'm happy about the delay, Steam or not. More time to polish, more time for me to finish other games, including the millions of games coming out in Q4 of 2024 lol.

Exactly. It's a win for developer, publisher, and consumer. And for those that prefer Uplay, it will be there for them as well.

Oh it will definitely require the Ubi launcher.

Riding the wave is demonstration of knowing.

Ghost of Yotei stole Assassin's thunder.

DOA

Valhalla was VERY buggy, nearly Cyberpunk levels at launch.

Not really. I think Shadows outsells it.

Ghost of Tsushima outsold almost every AC game.

Lol!

Almost every means an AC game has outsold Ghost of Tsushima.

Asmon 'I really need to clean my room some day' gold gets posted here about as much as Michael Pachter

Generally I agree with this statement but in this instance whoever they had running cultural advice clearly thought they knew more than they did, various symbology problems, not getting the correct permissions for certain symbols, using symbology associated with national tragedy for marketing, and one video I saw recently had a Japanese lady going through and pointing out that a bunch of the armor in use was incorrect for the dates the game is supposed to be set in, each thing on it's own is hardly an issue but taken as a whole it indicates a lack of attention.

You mean, topics you're not qualified to talk about and discuss.

What is Ubisoft expert in? Certainly not japanese culture and history. As they've demonstrated several times by now.

The content is funny and informative

If Hardwenzen is gone, I have to carry this mantel

How perfect. You match the person I was describing. 😊

Yves memo to the company

“Dear All,

We just issued a press release announcing our revised financial targets for the current fiscal year.

First, Star Wars Outlaws’ initial sales proved softer than expected, despite solid ratings from players that recognized the game’s faithful transcription of the original trilogy’s essence and richness: 76 on Metacritic, 3.85/5 on PS store, ~4/5 on Xbox and 4.4/5 on Epic. While players praise the sense of detail and the beauty of the graphics, the effectiveness of the reputation system, and endearing characters like Nix, some also noted areas of improvement. The development teams are already hard at work on this, focusing on save issues, stealth mechanics, more frequent quest checkpoints, and better NPC AI. I’m confident that these updates will significantly improve the player experience by allowing us to deliver on its promise, and make Star Wars Outlaws a must-play game and long-term seller. In parallel, the Publishing teams and developers are closely collaborating to increase the engagement with the game and boost player acquisition during Black Friday and the holiday season.

In today’s ultra-competitive market, players expect extraordinary experiences and ultra-polished games on Day 1. We need to continue to improve when it comes to fine-tuning our games and delivering outstanding gameplay. This is what will enable Ubisoft to again create the best games in the industry.

Consequently, we decided to delay Assassin’s Creed Shadows to February 14, 2025. The game is already playable and of high quality, and has all the features the team wanted to integrate into this ambitious experience. This unusual decision at such an advanced stage is motivated by our desire to offer an optimal experience from launch on all platforms and various PC configurations, and to remove the small frictions we typically used to address in post-launch title updates. We will also use the extra time to complement the experience with a few high-impact secondary quests that will bring even more memorable.

Additionally, as a result of listening to player feedback on other topics, our new releases, starting with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, will again be available on Steam on launch day, in addition to being available on first parties’, Epic’s and Ubisoft’s stores. Also, we are currently rethinking our Season Pass model for our upcoming games. For Assassin’s Creed Shadows, all players will have access to the game at the same time, and those who have pre-ordered the game will get the first expansion for free

Beyond the first important short-term actions that I’ve outlined above, the company’s top management will focus on accelerating the improvement of our production, communication, and publishing practices and processes in close collaboration with all these teams, with the objective to put players at the heart of all our decisions. We will regularly update you on the progress we’re making.

Lastly, I’d like to address the recent polarized coverage around our creative choices. We are an entertainment company. As such, our objective is not to endorse any specific agenda. Our mission has always been to entertain players and enrich their lives with original and memorable experiences, that resonate with a global audience.

This setback should not discourage us but serve as a learning experience and drive us to act even more quickly. More than ever, let’s continue to believe in our ability to bounce back, while approaching the challenges we face with lucidity and determination. I would like to thank you for your commitment and to reiterate my confidence in our collective ability to surprise and meet the expectations of a growing number of passionate players in the long term.

Yves

My translation of bolded part: ”Cool it with the woke stuff, we need to fight to survive now!”

You do realize that you are validating my point. Gamers, are talking about topics they are not qualified to comment on.

What I find most interesting is that this occurs in many games and movies, but for some reason this game is getting the microscope treatment.🤷🏽‍♂️

Vern, Vern, when will they learn?

lol :P

True I do watch a Asmongold video from time to time, mostly to see what is going on in the world.

And I gotta say: Most of what I see is deeply, deeply disturbing.

@Pedro: That's being a little obtuse don't you think? whenever a game/movie/whatever makes a claim about authenticity or historical accuracy they get the same treatment. Now in fairness certain communities are themselves being obtuse as we all know assassins creed is far from "historical", so for my money all Ubisoft had to do was go "hey assassins creed has always been a fun interpretation of a setting so this time round we've done...." rather than makes claims about historical accuracy, So when the lead producer says something along the lines of they wanted the game to be as authentic as possible it inevitably leads to exactly what we are seeing, therefore I don't blame the general audience I blame Ubisoft.

No, you're validating my point... again. When you look for Ghost of Tsushima and its historical authenticity you'll find plenty of material analyzing the game under a microscope. I actually watched some of them years ago.

Here is one randomly picked:

Not surprising considering how dedicated the japanese are to their culture and traditions.

You're not qualified...

a game about japanese culture yet they delay it for black history month. man these woke companies now lol.

I asked in another forum and no one had an answer; was there anything particularly woke in Outlaws, or is a bad haircut all it takes these days?

I don't know, haven't played it. I just interpreted what I thought Yves wanted to convey to the company. What do you think he meant with the bolded part?

So, no.

I already acknowledged your validation of my comment, no need to validate me again. 😂