For the French publisher, November means "let's check the numbers." Ubisoft has revised its sales figures and admitted that Star Wars Outlaws was a failure with consequences.
Assassin's Creed Shadows as a last chance?
At the start of the review of the first half of the 2024-25 fiscal year, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Yves Guillemot says:
[...] We are improving the quality of Star Wars Outlaws, including actively addressing player feedback through title updates as we get ready for the Steam launch, the first story pack, and the upcoming holiday season.
He also admits what we all thought: Star Wars Outlaws has underperformed, and it has underperformed badly. Now Ubisoft finally admits it and writes:
This quarter saw the release of Star Wars Outlaws™, which underperformed sales expectations.
But there's another assumption that's also been proven to be true. In the past, people have been looking for a reason why Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed. Was it not finished after all? Did they not want to release another AAA game after the rather unfortunate headlines Outlaws made? Ubisoft has provided an answer to this question, too:
We are also taking the additional time to ensure that the upcoming very ambitious opus in our flagship franchise, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, is a highly polished, exceptional experience on day one and that it resonates strongly with players.
All the functions have already been added to the game, but the team wants to avoid any bugs before it goes live.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will now be released on 14 February 2025. 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.
It looks like Ubisoft is pulling out all the stops to make sure Assassin's Creed Shadows is a hit. After all, it's Ubisoft's biggest franchise.
Are you looking forward to Assassin's Creed: Shadows, or has Ubisoft lost your trust? Let us know in the comments.