Ubisoft Executive Says 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' Devs "Think It's The Worst Thing They've Ever Seen"
Ubisoft’s Executive Producer for its Assassin’s Creed franchise Marc-Alexis Côté shared that a number of the developers on Assassin’s Creed Shadows believe the game is “the worst thing they’ve ever seen.”
During the Q&A portion of the interview, he also revealed that many of the people working at Ubisoft on the Assassin’s Creed franchise have no experience with the franchise.
He said, “One of the things that I’ve noticed since the pandemic is that we have a lot of juniors in our teams. … Probably half the team that’s building Assassin’s Creed is building a game for the first time.”
“So they don’t know,” he continued. “Even though they’re playing the game right now and they think it’s the worst thing they’ve ever seen, it’s going to be good. We’re going to get there.”
He elaborated, “I’ve been there. I remember my first time on Assassin’s creed like it was July and the game was shipping in October. I was like, ‘There’s now way this thing ends up shipping. Oh! 91 Metacritic. Oh, okay, this is good.’ So I was wrong because it’s not good until it is.”
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Côté’s comments come in the wake of Ubisoft delaying the game from its original release date of November 15th to February 14, 2025.
In September, Ubisoft announced in a press release, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows will now be released on 14 February 2025.”
It then explained why, “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. 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.”
Ubisoft continued, “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. The game will mark the return of our new releases on Steam Day 1.”
Côté would go on to provide more details in a post to the Assassin’s Creed account on X, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a dream project for us; finally bringing the series to Feudal Japan with many features developed with our community in mind, such as parkour or renewed stealth, brought by new technology, all set in a beautiful and immersive world. This is an ambitious addition to the franchise, a rich experience that can be lived through the eyes of two unique protagonists – but we realize we need more time to polish and refine the experience, pushing further some of our key features.”
“As such, we’ve made the decision to postpone the release date to February 14, 2025. The game will release on a broad range of platforms, including Steam at launch. Additionally, preorders will be refunded and all future preorders will be granted the first expansion for free,” he continued.
Côté added, We understand this decision will coms as disappointing news, especially to those who’ve been waiting patiently for an Assassin’s Creed game inspired by Feudal Japan, but we sincerely believe this is in the best interest of the game, and ultimately your experience as a player.”
“Rest assured we are looking forward to the moment you will embark on a memorable adventure with Naoe and Yasuke. Until then, we thank you for your ongoing support,” he concluded.
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A little over a month later during the company’s First-Half 2024-25 Earnings Figures Conference Call, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was asked about the game’s status by an investor from BMO. The investor asked, “On [Assassin’s Creed] Shadows, you guys said you delayed the game, you keep saying it was feature ready, so I am curious when you went through and looked back at the game were you guys finding bugs? Looking back were you glad you moved it? And I think you talked about an extra €20 million in development costs from doing this, how is that tracking?”
Guillemot responded, “On [Assassin’s Creed] Shadows what we had said was that on the back of what we saw with Outlaws we need to really make sure that we come with an impeccable player experience. Of course, there are always some bugs, but we’ve been focusing and continue focusing on making sure that the day one experience will be well optimized.”
Next, he confirmed, “And, yes, you are right we had mentioned that would translate into about €20 million in the total budget as we’ve kept a strong level of resources on this last phase of development and polishing.”
As for what that €20 million is going to, Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming claimed the that Ubisoft was “changing some of Yasuke’s story and how he’s portrayed in the game, fixing architectural details, and ensuring that the game is historically grounded while fitting into the Assassin’s Creed universe.”
Henderson also added that “The game is currently not at the stage it needs to be for release, and I’m told that there have been some tweaks to some gameplay mechanics and elements that are going to take time to incorporate.”
Furthermore, he shared “that historical experts were brought onto the project much later than usual for a project of this magnitude and that miscommunication between teams and cutting corners when it came to the approval process of assets to meet deadlines” resulted in “many of the historical and cultural concerns” that have been raised by gamers.
He also divulged that Ubisoft management had ignored their own developers who had been calling for a delay. He stated, “Seven developers working on the project said that they have been pushing for a delay for some time, and their situation had even been heard at other studios in the company.”
YouTuber Endymion also shared information from his source that claimed that Ubisoft is planning to make changes to Yasuke. He said, “One of the things for sure getting removed from Shadows, according to my sources, is indeed the rap, hip-hop music for Yasuke. Apparently Ubisoft brought out a questionnaire and they were unanimously told that the rap music was tonally wrong and completely unneeded. And that it was actually offensive that Ubisoft believed Yasuke needed a hip-hop battle theme in a game that was set well before such music existed and it was only implemented ’cause Yasuke was black.”
“So that’s going to be gone for sure,” he declared.
They are also going to be removing dialogue from the game that according to my source told me that it would actually enrage players it they heard it,” he added. “I wasn’t given concrete examples of what kind of dialogue but the source assumed it may have been Yasuke saying some sort of sociopolitical pandering nonsense about he was sold by white men or something and that he hates white men and white supremacy must be abolished and such.”
“They’re also removing this because, of course, if that were in the game it would absolutely be highlighted and used to detract even more people from supporting the game in the future,” Endymion stated.
What do you make of Côté admitting that developers have informed him the Assassin’s Creed Shadows is “the worst thing they’ve ever seen”? Join as a paid member to leave a comment and support our journalism.
The people in charge of AC Shadows are the biggest idiots in gaming. They had the most obvious easy win here and blew it. An AC game with a Japanese samurai main character set in feudal Japan would have sold to every fan of the series and gained new fans.