Ubisoft has announced another Assassin's Creed Shadows delay, with the upcoming open-world action RPG now set to launch around a month on from its most recent release date.
Per a message on social media platform X, the new Assassin's Creed Shadows release date is March 20th. The game was previously set to release on Valentine's Day, having originally been slated for a November 2024 launch when it was first unveiled.
In the message, Ubisoft says it's delaying Shadows in order to implement "valuable feedback" from the game's community and to "ensure an even more ambitious and engaging day-one experience".
In a press release, Ubisoft reveals a little more of its rationale for delaying Assassin's Creed Shadows. The studio says it wants to "create the best conditions for launch by continuing to engage closely with the increasingly positive Assassin's Creed community".
This may or may not be a veiled reference to an ongoing controversy surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows, one which pertains specifically to co-protagonist Yasuke.
Some have argued that Yasuke is portrayed in a historically inaccurate and disrespectful light in Shadows, while opponents to that view have argued that the issue is a dog whistle which hides unsavory prejudicial views on the part of its proponents.
Of course, it's also worth noting that in the press release, Ubisoft says holiday sales for Star Wars Outlaws were "lower than expected", which may have caused the company to panic and push Shadows back in order to ensure it's in a better state at launch to drive sales.
Last time Assassin's Creed Shadows was delayed, Ubisoft admitted that Star Wars Outlaws had underperformed, and it's likely that a tentpole release with a major IP attached to it achieving low sales is a huge driver for the company wanting to ensure Shadows is a success.
Ubisoft also says in the aforementioned press release that it has "appointed leading advisors to review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders".
Reading between the corporate speak lines, it's likely this refers to the Guillemots' and Tencent's ongoing conversations regarding potentially taking the company private, among other options.
Those conversations are only likely to be growing more urgent thanks to the aforementioned underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws, as well as the recent cancellation of live-service shooter XDefiant and the closure of two Ubisoft studios.
In any case, Assassin's Creed Shadows will now arrive on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S on March 20th (assuming it's not delayed again, of course).
