Assassin’s Creed Shadows release delayed to 2025 after ‘lessons learned from Star Wars Outlaws’

Ubisoft has announced a significant delay to the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, now scheduled for February 14, 2025 instead of its previously planned November launch date. Existing pre-order holders will be refunded.

Ubisoft has long targeted the key holiday sales period of the year for its successful Assassin’s Creed games, making this move highly unusual. In a statement, Ubisoft said the game’s content is complete — as you might hope, seven weeks before its intended launch date — but it will now get more polish.

Ubisoft said the delay was likely due to the “slow launch of Star Wars Outlaws,” a blockbuster film it had been hoping for but which then launched in August and failed to sell well. It added that the publisher was now acting on “lessons learned” from that game.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is now set to launch on Steam on day one – a move the publisher has indicated will continue with other releases in the future.

In another change, Shadows will now abandon the usual season pass model. However, the game’s first expansion will be given away for free to anyone who pre-orders the game now.

“While the game’s features are complete, the lessons learned from Star Wars Outlaws have led us to devote more time to further polishing the title,” Ubisoft said in a statement today. “This will allow the franchise’s biggest release to fully realize its ambitions, particularly by delivering on the promise of a two-protagonist adventure, with Naoe and Yasuke bringing two very different styles of play.”

Today’s delay also marked Ubisoft’s first comment on Star Wars Outlaws’ performance. The company says the game has received a “strong” response from critics, but that hasn’t translated into sales.

“In response to player feedback, Ubisoft’s development teams are now ready to quickly implement a series of updates to refine and improve the player experience in order to attract a large audience during the holiday season and position Star Wars Outlaws for a strong long-term presence,” the statement continued. “The game will be available on Steam on November 21.”

“Ubisoft’s abbreviated formula is impressive but doomed to fail,” wrote Eurogamer’s Chris Tapsell in our review of Star Wars Outlaws last month.

Today’s news from Ubisoft concluded with a statement from company president Yves Guillemot, who admitted that the company’s financial performance over the past quarter was lower than expected, and announced a broader review of how future projects will be executed.

“The second quarter performance fell short of our expectations, prompting us to address this issue quickly and decisively, with a greater focus on a player-centric approach that puts gameplay first and an unwavering commitment to the long-term value of our brands,” said Guillemot.

Without further elaboration, Guillemot concluded his comment by commenting on what he called “controversial comments” about the company, which he said were “not intended to advance any specific agenda.” Here’s the full quote:

“Finally, let me address some of the controversial comments about Ubisoft recently. I want to emphasize that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for as wide an audience as possible, and our goal is not to impose any specific agenda. We are committed to creating games for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”

It’s hard not to see this as another comment on the recent online controversy surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which focused largely on the inclusion of the African historical figure Yasuke and his portrayal as a samurai. Eurogamer has asked Ubisoft for further clarification on Guillemot’s comment here.

“Of course we make creative choices, it’s a video game,” Thierry Dansereau, the art director of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and a series veteran, told me last month, adding that he was confident in how the game would ultimately be received.