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Ubisoft has delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows yet again, this time by another month.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was due out February 14, 2025, but will now launch on March 20 instead. This is the game’s second delay, after an initial release date of November 12, 2024 was pushed back to this year.
“As part of the renewed focus on gameplay quality and engaging Day-1 experiences, it has been decided to provide an additional month of development to Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” Ubisoft said.
“This additional time will allow the team to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months and help create the best conditions for launch by continuing to engage closely with the increasingly positive Assassin’s Creed community. The game is now scheduled for March 20.”
Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot, added: “we are all behind our teams’ efforts to create the most ambitious Assassin’s Creed opus of the franchise and made the decision to provide an extra month of development to Shadows in order to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months that will enable us to fully deliver on the potential of the game and finish the year on a strong note.”
This second delay to Assassin’s Creed Shadows comes during one of the most troubling times in Ubisoft’s history. The company is reportedly in buyout talks with Chinese megacorp Tencent after a torrid 2024 in which it closed studios, shut down games, and made mass layoffs. Star Wars Outlaws failed to meet sales expectations, and Call of Duty competitor XDefiant was discontinued.
Ubisoft’s shares fell to their lowest level in the last decade in September after Ubisoft made a series of dramatic announcements around the performance of its games. As well as delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft announced a return to Steam after a period of PC launch exclusivity on the Epic Games Store, with Star Wars Outlaws recently releasing on Valve’s platform. However, the generally much-loved Assassin’s Creed Origins suffering a review-bomb campaign on Steam after a Windows PC update rendered it unplayable for some.
As part of the “strategic update” announced alongside Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ latest delay, Ubisoft said it had appointed “leading advisors to review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders.” That’s a lot of corporate speak that hints at a potential sale.
“This process will be overseen by the independent members of the Board of Directors,” the company continued. “Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and once a transaction materializes.”
Meanwhile, Ubisoft warned that “significant” cost reductions are to come to the tune of more than €200 million (approx. $205 million) by FY2025-26 vs. FY2022-23 on an annualized basis. As part of this came the aforementioned closure of XDefiant and its San Francisco developer or — as Ubisoft put it: “In December, XDefiant was discontinued and three production studios in high-cost geographies were closed.”
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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Kurt Indovina
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