Ubisoft Backs Off Woke Stance Amid Assassin’s Creed Shadows Delay and Poor Star Wars Outlaws Sales

Video Games

Ubisoft appears to be in a lot of trouble, with the video game studio taking hits from all sides and seemingly admitting defeat. And I don’t just mean their game sales – they’re walking away from their woke agenda, at least publicly. The first domino to fall was the reveal that Star Wars Outlaws, one of Ubisoft’s big game releases, is not selling as well as they’d hoped. According to True Trophies, Star Wars Outlaws has fallen to number 39 on their list of the top 40 most popular PlayStation games for the past week. As That Park Place points out, in less than a month since its release, more people are playing games as old as Ghost of Tsushima than Star Wars Outlaws, which suggests a rejection of the notoriously buggy and poorly developed game. PSN Profiles reports that only 7,170 PlayStation users own a copy of Outlaws, and the average completion rate is 29%, indicating that most gamers aren’t even bothering to finish the game. That Park Place also notes that Ubisoft hasn’t released sales figures, which it surely would have done if Outlaws was a hit, particularly because of the ridicule directed at the game before its release. And, looking at the gameplay of this very expensive game, can you blame gamers for taking a pass on this one?

Then came a big shocker: Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the next installment in Ubisoft’s long-running stealth series, is being delayed. Originally, the game was set to be released on November 15, 2024, which made sense; it was right in time for the Christmas Season, making it ideal for Santa to leave under the tree – or, for older gamers, a me-to-me Christmas treat. Now, however, it’s got a new release date of February 14, 2025. Somehow, I don’t see this being a big Valentine’s Day seller. In the delay announcement, Ubisoft – after gushing about how much everyone on the team just loves the game – say they’re doing this to “polish and refine” Assassin’s Creed Shadows. They make it clear that Yasuke is still the lead character of the game alongside Naoe, so they’re not removing him, which wouldn’t have been feasible anyway. I do think it’s possible they’ll try to fix some of the cultural and historical mistakes they’ve made – aside from having a black samurai walking around feudal Japan and kicking the shit out of Japanese people – like the Chinese architecture and modern flags. But that’s not the only reason.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will now release February 14, 2025. pic.twitter.com/J2ah7kkytW

— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) September 25, 2024

After these two messes, Ubisoft issued a press release adjusting their financial projections for the next fiscal year, 2024-2025, with the cited reasons being the Assassin’s Creed Shadows delay and “the softer than expected launch for Star Wars Outlaws.” Ouch. Moreover, the press release gives the reasons for Assassin’s Creed Shadows moving back its release date, and it has a lot to do with Star Wars Outlaws. They say the “learnings” from Outlaws’ failure made them want to “provide additional time to further polish” Assassin’s Creed Shadows. In other words, they want to make damn sure Shadows doesn’t become the laughingstock Outlaws did, so they’re going over it with a fine-tooth comb to make sure Yasuke doesn’t suddenly walk through a mountain or something. That it has to get to this point is outrageous; this should be standard practice for all games, and the time taken to ensure the game functions properly should be baked into the production schedule. But whatever it takes to get them to release a working product is a positive step, I suppose. However, the funniest part comes from a personal message from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot attached to the press release:

This is HUGE.

Ubisoft’s Board is launching an internal investigation.

Their goal is to ‘not push any specific agenda’.

It seems like Ubisoft got the message.

We, gamers, are customers, not consumers. pic.twitter.com/Qm0dROppQ8

— Yorch Torch Games (@TinkererYorch) September 25, 2024

I know, this is rich coming from the guy who insulted gamers as toxic and championed DEI just a few months ago. But the turnaround is significant because it means Ubisoft knows there’s a problem. I don’t know if that means they’ll fix it, despite promising an internal investigation; as Mark Kern correctly points out, Bob Iger has said this over and over, and Disney never changed course (although it may be now). And I agree that you should always wait until you see the change before you believe it’s coming. But the Ubisoft situation is very different from the Disney one. Yves Guillemot helped create Ubisoft, but he doesn’t have the cultural cachet Bob Iger has. And the stockholders are very angry; one investment firm outright threatened a proxy war unless big changes were made, with the Guillemot family being called out for their recklessness and incompetence. So, I think this one could go somewhere; Assassin’s Creed Shadows will still be what it is, but going forward, Ubisoft could be in for a big sea change.

Let us know what you think of Ubisoft’s woes and the potential for change in the comments!

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