Ubisoft is postponing the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows to 2025. The company claims that the game is fully ready, but this decision is dictated by the "softer than expected" reception of Star Wars Outlaws. This was reported by Polygon.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said that the company wants to make sure that Assassin's Creed Shadows meets its ambitions. He states that the company has drawn conclusions after Star Wars Outlaws and needs more time to improve the game.
Assassin's Creed Shadows will be released on February 14, 2025 on all platforms at once, including Steam. Ubisoft games have not appeared on Valve's PC platform for a long time, limited to the company's own launcher and the Epic Games Store.
“This will enable the biggest entry in the franchise to fully deliver on its ambition, notably by fulfilling the promise of our dual protagonist adventure, with Naoe and Yasuke bringing two very different gameplay styles,” Ubisoft said in a press release.
Both Assassin's Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws have garnered a lot of attention in the public discourse about the appearance of characters and the "historical accuracy" of games.
Yves Guillemot calls these topics "popular comments" and notes that promoting certain narratives is not the company's goal. All of Ubisoft's efforts are aimed at creating interesting and successful games, but "perception issues" do affect the company's results.
Star Wars Outlaws creative director Julian Gerighty told The Washington Post in July that the controversy is "not worth getting into."
"If you engage with bad-faith people, there’s no nuance and no possibility of real dialogue. So all we can do is make the best game possible," Julian Gerighty says.