Assassin’s Creed Shadowshas beendelayed out of this year and into February. That’s probably for the best. As Shigeru Miyamoto probably didn’t say, a delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever. If there is a way to makeAssassin’s Creed Shadowsbetter at the cost of a few months, that’s a trade off worth making. But there are two questions - what are those ways, and why February?
Typically it’s pretty easy to understand why games are delayed - they aren’t ready. That’s not the case with Shadows. A version of the game that’s good enough for public consumption is ready,Ubisoftadmits. Butit can get even better, so it’s being delayed. That’s unusual, and not always a good sign. The last time a game walked that path,Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, never seemed likely to fix its fundamental issues, and by the time it launched, still had not.
What Exactly Is Assassin’s Creed Shadows Going To Fix
Things aren’t so bleak with Shadows. While I nor any other journalist has actually played the game yet, I didsee it at SGF where it had an extended gameplay showcase. It looked fine. It was an Assassin’s Creed game. It still had the charm those games have - impressive enough visuals, historical time period, cool kills - as well as the drawbacks. Animation looked less fluid than Ubisoft’s peers as it tried in vain to keep up with gaming’s descent into realism, and had a lot of other dated aspects.
At one point, Naoe was crawling by a candle on a tall pole, and snuffed it out while still crawling (without moving) because of a button press. Likewise, when she threw a dagger to destroy a lantern, the guard looked from side to side in fright, then continued at his post. It must have been the wind, right? You got away with these things when all games were doing it, but other games have gotten more immersive, tactile, and reactive. you may’t look like them and not act like them. You are willingly making yourself worse by inviting comparison. How do you fix that with a few months’ delay?
Shadows does innovate, but not in any ways that matter. There seems to be an understanding that Assassin’s Creed needs to evolve, but no ideas on how to do it. The realistic weather engine had no impact on gameplay in either the playthrough I saw at SGF ormy colleague Rhiannon Bevan observed at Gamescom. I was told there were alternate ways to play the mission I witnessed if the lake was frozen over, but despite showing me three runs, the lake remained the same each time.
Ubisoft Has Been Blindsided By Shadows' Culture War
This lack of ideas also shows in the firestorm swirling around the game. In Ubisoft’s defence, it was reasonable to assume that in 2024, having a Black man in a video game wouldn’t lead to itbeing seen as the devil incarnate. Yasuke is an interesting historical character,of whom there is no debate around his general existence, and exactly the sort of figure I’d expect to see in an Assassin’s Creed game. It is unfortunate he has become a lightning rod for racism. But Ubisoft has handled the situation poorly.
The company has constantly be torn between disavowing the racist taunts of fans and defending its creative choices, which has mainly happened viasporadic interviews with individuals associated with the gamein rare press opportunities, and courting an apologetic stance so as to keep as many fans appeased as possible, which hasmainly happened via company statements. Even in the wake of this cancellation, the issue was ducked.
“I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda. We remain committed to creating games… that everyone can enjoy,”Ubisoft’s CEO wrote in a leaked memoin the wake of the delay. The poor reception toOutlawswas also mentioned, but whether reviewers will get more than a week with Shadows to experience it at a more charitable pace remains to be seen.
February Is The Worst Time To Launch Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Then there’s the question of timing. February generally is a pretty good month to release games in. It’s long enough after the holidays that our wallets have recharged, and usually in a window where there’s limited competition as other blockbusters aim for Spring or Summer domination instead. There’s a key word in that sentence. ‘Usually’.
This year, aside from a handful of decent remasters, there were three ‘big’ games in February, and two were destined to flop anyway. The aforementioned Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League opened the month,Skull And Bonesarrived in the middle, andFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth(which is different to a standard remake) closed the month out. Had Shadows been delayed out of 2023 into February, all it needed to do was avoid FF7R right at February’s close.
That’s not the case in 2025. A non-exhaustive list of February games includesAvowed,Civilization 7,Monster Hunter Wilds,Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, andLike a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Before many of these games announced their release dates,Lost Records: Bloom & Ragealso moved into February to avoid clashing withLife is Strange: Double Exposure. That might have been saving face for a regular ‘game’s not ready’ delay, but it has also chosen poorly with February, going from frying pan to inferno.
Not to mention it’s now fallen to second biggest samurai game of the year thanks toGhost of Yotei.
At least Lost Records could not look before it leaped. Assassin’s Creed Shadows has decided willingly to take them all on. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like a fight the current version of Assassin’s Creed can win. While there are other factors - the joint release on PC being the largest - it feels like the game has been delayed less because of typical ‘behind schedule’ factors and more because Ubisoft doesn’t have full faith in it.
Putting a game you’re not quite sure about up against Monster Hunter feels silly. Putting it up against Monster Hunter and four other games that could be GOTY contenders if done right is downright masochistic. That tied to a failure to understand the evolution needed for the series, and an inability to handle the toxicity of modern triple-A gaming, makes me think Shadows might have been doomed from the start.
