Ubisoft in turmoil as it delays Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, abandons the current season pass model and announces that it’s coming back to Steam
Ubisoft appears to in a state of panic and confusion at the moment as it announces a delay to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.
Hints that something was going on with Ubisoft emerged yesterday when the company suddenly pulled out of the Tokyo Game Show at the last minute. Word then got out that press previews for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows that were scheduled to take place next week had also be canceled.
Ubisoft has been struggling for years now. In 2018 its shares were the highest they’ve ever been at over 100 euros, but since then they’ve declined and are now at their lowest price (a measly 11.42 euros) in nearly a decade, which seems to be why Ubisoft is now making some changes. 2023 was especially rough, with a drop of 50% in share value.
The French company’s share prices took another hit just last week when it became apparent that Star Wars: Outlaws sales weren’t as strong as they had hoped.
“Additionally, despite solid ratings (Metacritic 76) and user scores across the First Party and Epic stores (3.9/5) that reflect an immersive and authentic Star Wars universe, Star Wars Outlaws initial sales proved softer than expected,” Ubisoft said in a financial statement released today.
“In response to player feedback, Ubisoft’s development teams are currently fully mobilized to swiftly implement a series of updates to polish and improve the player experience in order to engage a large audience during the holiday season to position Star Wars Outlaws as a strong long-term performer.”
Seemingly as a response to its struggles, Ubisoft made several big announcements.
First, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Ubisoft’s biggest release of the year, has now been delayed until February 14, 2025. Ubisoft stated that the game’s content is finished, but the delay is to give Shadows some extra polish.
“While the game is feature complete, the learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time to further polish the title,” Ubisoft said. “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.”
They will also seemingly be ditching the existing season pass model, with Shadows poised to have no season pass at all. At least, that appears to be what the company is saying as the wording is rather vague: “We are departing from the traditional Season Pass model. All players will be able to enjoy the game at the same time on February 14 and those who preorder the game will be granted the first expansion for free.”
Shadows has seen a number of controversies since it was launched, with the first being the inclusion of real-life historical figure Yasuke, the first ever recorded black person in Japan. In Ubisoft’s game, he’s a Samurai, which sparked heated debates as in historical terms Yasuke was never referred to as such. Several other controversies have popped up surrounding the game and its depiction of Japanese culture.
Yves Guillemot, the head honcho of Ubisoft, seemingly addressed this today with a statement: “Finally, let me address some of the polarised comments around Ubisoft lately. 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 for fans and players that everyone can enjoy.”
As part of the delay, Ubisoft announced that all pre-orders will be refunded, and anyone who did pre-order will now get the game’s first expansion for free.
On top of delaying Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Ubisoft has announced that all of its games will now be launching onto Steam from day 1. This will take effect in February when Shadows launches.
Ubisoft hasn’t released a game straight onto Steam since 2019. Instead, the French publisher focused on launching its titles onto its own Uplay storefront and onto the Epic Games Store. It altered this strategy in 2022 when Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla came to Steam two years after its release, followed by Anno 1800. Ubisoft must have been happy with the results as it began to release the rest of its titles onto Steam as well, but only a few months after they came out on Uplay and Epic.
Finally, in the same financial statement which revealed the delay of Shadows and lacklustre sales performance of Star Wars: Outlaws, it was revealed that Ubisoft’s Executive Committee and Board of Directors will launch an investigation and review of the company.
“In the light of recent challenges, we acknowledge the need for greater efficiency while delighting players. As a result, beyond the first important short-term actions undertaken, the Executive Committee, under the supervision of the Board of Directors, is launching a review aimed at further improving our execution, notably in this player-centric approach, and accelerating our strategic path towards a higher performing model to the benefit of our stakeholders and shareholders.”
Despite its various announcements today though, Ubisoft is trying to keep focuses on open-world games and games-as-a-service.
“Although the tangible benefits of the Company’s transformation are taking longer than anticipated to materialize, we keep on our strategy, focusing on two key verticals – Open World Adventures and GaaS-native experiences – with the objective to drive growth, recurrence and robust free cash flow generation in our business.” said Ubisoft.
I wonder if the company’s intense focus on producing open-world games using the same basic template and its chasing of GaaS cash aren’t the very things that have landed it in this position, though.