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What just happened? It's fair to say that Star Wars Outlaws was not the critical and commercial success that Ubisoft expected. Having taken note of the lukewarm sales and reception, the company has decided to postpone the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which will now be arriving on February 14, 2025.
A statement from Ubisoft franchise executive producer Marc-Alexis Côté says that more time is needed to polish and refine the experience in Assassin's Creed Shadows while also further pushing some of the key features.
Assassin's Creed Shadows will now release February 14, 2025. pic.twitter.com/J2ah7kkytW
– Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) September 25, 2024
AC Shadows was set to release on November 12, around seven weeks away, so it's pretty late in the day for a postponement. But it seems Ubisoft's last big release played a big part in the decision.
In a letter to investors, Ubisoft wrote, "While the game [Shadows] is feature complete, the learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time to further polish the title."
"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."
Also read: Star Wars Outlaws GPU Benchmark
Ubisoft promised a lot with Outlaws, which it called the first open-world Star Wars game. But it arrived to mostly mediocre reviews from critics, and many players were even less generous. Ubisoft admitted that the game had a "softer than expected launch." Having just finished Outlaws, this writer would agree that it's a 6/10 at best, with too many repetitive and irritating sections.
The investor note also reveals that Assassin's Creed Shadows will be released on all platforms, including Steam on day 1. This will be the case for all of Ubisoft's games going forward; the company has spent the last few years keeping its day 1 PC releases exclusive to the Epic Games Store.
Ubisoft returned to Steam in late 2022 after many years of absence with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, two years after it launched. More of the company's titles have followed since then – Star Wars Outlaws comes to Steam on November 21, the same day its first DLC hits – but Assassin's Creed Shadows will mark the return of Ubisoft day-1 releases to Valve's storefront.