Assassin's Creed Shadows Slinks out of 2024 and into 2025

In a recent meeting with its Board of Directors, Ubisoft has made the decision to push the forthcoming Assassin's Creed Shadows to February 2025 to "provide additional time to further polish the title". Citing Star Wars Outlaws and the critical feedback it launched with in terms of polish, which led to a "softer than expected" adoption rate (read: softer sales), the October launch window for Shadows has now been pushed into early next year.

Ubi also revealed that Shadows, which features a unique-for-the-series "dual protagonist adventure", is feature-complete right now, meaning the additional time in development will be focused solely on ensuring that, out of the gate, players get the best experience with the game.

Additionally, Ubisoft also revealed it is scrapping the traditional Season Pass model, which has been a staple of its many brands for a number of years though oft maligned by players, to go back to an older model where all features are available to all come launch day, at this point being February 14 (happy Valentines Day). While the Season Pass model has been removed, paid additional content is still part of the game's post-launch roadmap, but Ubi also said those who preorder Assassin's Creed Shadows will be granted the first expansion for free.

On the Star Wars Outlaws front, the release surrounding this decision to delay also noted that "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".

Finally, co-founder Yves Guillemont revealed that a company-wide review would be undertaken in light of all of the above to address sales performance expectations moving forward and to also better serve punters and their expectations, also, but maintained that Ubisoft would remain a "player-centric" and "gameplay-first" entertainment brand while also committing to continuing to develop open-world titles and games as a service live titles.

So, in short, Star Wars Outlaws' less-than-ideal launch has forced the developer-publisher to clean house a bit, get some practices in order and to refocus its efforts more directly to the player experience and the expectations from them these games come with in and around launch. And the transparency here is both refreshing and good to see, though it does feel like a few hands were forced into this action. But, change is always good.

Now, to tease out the revamped launch for Assassin's Creed Shadows, check out a bunch of screens and artwork in our carousel below.