What changed – and what didn’t – during Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ four-month delay

Ubisoft has detailed the various steps it took to improve Assassin’s Creed Shadows during the game’s high-profile four-month delay from last October to (after a further date change) its now-final release on 20th March.

Speaking to Eurogamer’s Katharine Castle in Quebec, members of Shadows’ development team confirmed the game’s narrative had not seen any adjustments, with improvements focused on systems and gameplay.

“There’s a lot of things across the board,” game director Charles Benoit told Eurogamer, “the progression, how we tweak the systems, tutorials, the feeling of hitting with the sword, FX camera. So a lot of small details, but overall makes the experience better.”

Benoit went on to give a clear example of one such change, which involved parkour atop the game’s Japanese roof architecture.

“The roofs [have] so much detail with a lot of different parts here and there,” Benoit said. “Before the push [into 2025] the parkour worked, but going on a beam stance and then transition[ing], it didn’t feel fluid enough. So we did a lot of tweaking on how we create the collision and everything. The parkour is a lot more fluid, the transition is faster.”

Asked if any story elements in Shadows had changed based on feedback to the game’s early marketing, associate narrative director Brooke Davies confirmed they had not.

“No, we did not [change anything],” Davies said. “The extra time was used for polish on gameplay.”

Eurogamer has a raft of Assassin’s Creed Shadows preview coverage now live after an extended hands-on play session with the game. Read on for our thoughts of how Assassin’s Creed Shadows is shaping up to be the series’ biggest shake-up in years, plus deeper dives into its all-new base-building gameplay, and mysterious Animus Hub.

Last year, Assassin’s Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté said the delay to Shadows had been necessary to change the “narrative” of Ubisoft’s “inconsistency in quality”. Speaking at an event attended by Eurogamer, Coté acknowledged his team had “only… one shot” at ensuring the game was successful from launch.

This article is based on a press event in Quebec, for which Ubisoft covered travel and accomodation.