New Information Contextualizes Assassin’s Creed Shadows Delay, Including Abysmal Pre-Sales Figures
More information on the Assassin’s Creed Shadows delay is coming in from various sources, and it doesn’t bode well for this game, or for Ubisoft. The first round of info comes from Endymion, who spoke with sources he says he verified and trusts. The most glaring news concerns the pre-sales for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which are just 7% of those of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla during the same pre-release period. Even with all the trouble Shadows has had and keeping in mind that Valhalla was a huge success, that number is astonishingly low, and it clarifies why Ubisoft is delaying it – aside from its many other issues, they need to at least give the impression that they’re trying to fix Shadows to entice gamers to buy it. Endymion’s sources tell him Shadows originally had a Japanese male character as the co-lead with female shinobi Naoe, but this was changed to Yasuke, the black man who is being dubiously portrayed as a samurai, which caused much controversy since the first trailer debuted. According to his sources, the change came about in 2020 in response to sociopolitical events like George Floyd’s death and Black Lives Matter “protests.” The other main reason for the delay is to fix any cultural mistakes in the game, which was initiated by a small figurine that referenced the atomic destruction of Nagasaki. Also on the chopping block is the rap music, which was unanimously rejected by participants in a questionnaire, as well as some dialogue that would “enrage players.” You can see Endymion’s video below:
Insider Gaming also has some background on the Assassin’s Creed Shadows delay. Apparently, the historical experts Ubisoft patted themselves on the back for consulting were brought in much later than they should have been, and that’s why there are so many mistakes in the game. In fact, the developers were asking for a delay for several months, but Ubisoft didn’t listen. They’re only doing it now because of Star Wars Outlaws’ abysmal sales. A Brazilian YouTuber named tvPH says the game was buggy, even more so than previous Assassin’s Creed games, which have historically had kinks to iron out upon release. He claims the source of these bugs is “ a change of internal technology within the game,” and, as with seemingly everyone else, confirms that Star Wars Outlaws’ low sales was what convinced Ubisoft to delay the game. You can see his video below, but it’s in Spanish, so if, like me, you don’t speak it, you can read That Park Place’s report on it via Google Translate:
Aside from Enymion’s inside info, most of the gels with Ubisoft’s official press release announcing the delay. They cited the “softer than expected” launch of Star Wars Outlaws, and that makes sense. The absolute ridicule Ubisoft got for the awful state of that game – which they richly deserved – had to have given them pause about releasing another game with lots of bugs in it. If Assassin’s Creed has a history of choppy releases (I’m not a fan of the franchise, so I wouldn’t know first-hand), Ubisoft probably figured they could get away with it again. But on the heels of Outlaws, gamers are certainly less inclined to forgive what they once did from the studio. I’m sure the Assassin’s Creed Shadows pre-sales were a factor as well; clearly, people were just not that into this game, and Ubisoft will want to do anything they can to correct that, even if they’ll almost certainly fail. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that Yasuke is not being removed from the game, and that was a given; aside from the time frame not being big enough, there’s no way in hell they’d spend the money necessary to replace one of the two playable characters, which would essentially be remaking the game, or at least half of it. Even if Assassin’s Creed Shadows were successful, it’d be next to impossible to make their money back after that. These appear to be desperate moves from a company in peril, and unless a bunch of miracles happen soon, it doesn’t look good for Ubisoft.
Let us know what you think of the Assassin’s Creed Shadows pre-sales and delay in the comments!
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