Until late last month, Assassin's Creed Shadows was scheduled for a November release this year. Ubisoft then unexpectedly announced a delay until early next year. However, according to a recent report, this delay was no surprise to Ubisoft Quebec, the studio developing Shadows. The developers had reportedly been advocating for a postponement for months.
Ubisoft's statement attributed the new release date to the need for additional time to refine the gameplay and to apply lessons learned from the underwhelming launch of Star Wars Outlaws, which has reportedly sold around 1 million copies so far. Inside Gaming's report corroborates these reasons but adds that "[Assassin's Creed Shadow] is currently not at the stage it needs to be for release." There are still bugs to fix, but the more significant concerns involve enhancing the historically accurate elements of the story. One reason for these last-minute adjustments is that "historical experts were brought onto the project much later than usual for a project of this magnitude."
A positive outcome from Ubisoft's recent decisions is the reversal of their stance on releasing new games simultaneously on consoles and Steam. This change was reportedly frequently requested by some of Ubisoft's employees. Assassin's Creed Shadows is now set to launch on consoles and PC on February 14, 2025.
