Wednesday, September 25th 2024
Ubisoft Delays Assassin's Creed Shadows to February 2025 After Cancelling Tokyo Game Show Appearance and Press Previews
Ubisoft and the Assassin's Creed game franchise have had a bit of a rough time of late, with recent installments to the franchise largely having received a lukewarm or even negative reception. Now, just two months ahead of the official launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows—which is slated to revive much of the allure of some of the older Assassin's Creed games—Ubisoft is reportedly pulling out of the Tokyo Game Show and cancelling early media previews of the game.
Ubisoft Japan broke the news via a post to the company's official X account, although it doesn't reveal why it cancelled the September 26 broadcast, citing only "various circumstances" for the cancelled appearance. Alongside the cancelled Tokyo Game Show showcase, Ubisoft has also reportedly cancelled the subsequent Assassin's Creed press previews, which were scheduled for next week. The cancellation of both of these events has led fans to speculate about potential launch delays for the next Assassin's Creed game.
Yasuke, an African samurai, caused an uproar in the Assassin's Creed fan base, because there were some suggestions that he never existed in history in the first place. Others, meanwhile, were unhappy that he was being portrayed as a samurai, arguing that he was a weapons carrier instead. While most historians are almost 100% certain he existed, others have their doubts, and those doubts have created a bit of a rift in the gaming community. Regardless, the concerns about the historical accuracy are unlikely to be the cause of any cancelled events or press previews, since Ubisoft has already addressed the origin of the game's protagonist when the community first raised the issue.
Sources:
Ubisoft Japan, Insider Gaming, Japan Forward, Smithsonian Magazine, Assassin's Creed on X
Ubisoft Japan broke the news via a post to the company's official X account, although it doesn't reveal why it cancelled the September 26 broadcast, citing only "various circumstances" for the cancelled appearance. Alongside the cancelled Tokyo Game Show showcase, Ubisoft has also reportedly cancelled the subsequent Assassin's Creed press previews, which were scheduled for next week. The cancellation of both of these events has led fans to speculate about potential launch delays for the next Assassin's Creed game.
Dear Community,While this hardly serves as confirmation that the game will be delayed, it's certainly possible, especially given the current shape of the gaming industry. That would explain why both the showcase and the press previews were both cancelled around the same time—especially if there is still a lot of work to do to get the game in a working state. This also isn't the first time that Assassin's Creed Shadows has run into trouble—earlier this year, Ubisoft faced criticism from fans over the historical accuracy of one of the game's protagonists.
Regarding our online participation in "TOKYO GAME SHOW 2024" scheduled for September 26th at 3:00 PM.
Due to various circumstances, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cancel our participation.
The currently ongoing gift campaign commemorating the official broadcast will continue.
We apologize for the short notice.
We sincerely apologize to everyone who was looking forward to the broadcast.
Ubisoft Inc.
Yasuke, an African samurai, caused an uproar in the Assassin's Creed fan base, because there were some suggestions that he never existed in history in the first place. Others, meanwhile, were unhappy that he was being portrayed as a samurai, arguing that he was a weapons carrier instead. While most historians are almost 100% certain he existed, others have their doubts, and those doubts have created a bit of a rift in the gaming community. Regardless, the concerns about the historical accuracy are unlikely to be the cause of any cancelled events or press previews, since Ubisoft has already addressed the origin of the game's protagonist when the community first raised the issue.
The Assassin's Creed Shadows team has a message for our Japanese community.Update Sep 25th: Ubisoft has confirmed via a post to the Assassin's Creed X account that Assassin's Creed Shadows is delayed until February 14, 2025. In the post, Ubisoft says that the game is "an ambitious addition to the franchise" and that it needs more time to "polish and refine" the experience. Additionally, Ubisoft will be refunding any existing Assassin's Creed Shadows pre-orders and giving those who pre-order access to the game's first expansion for free when it ships.
51 Comments on Ubisoft Delays Assassin's Creed Shadows to February 2025 After Cancelling Tokyo Game Show Appearance and Press Previews
I was slightly late to the party and played all of the AssCreeds back to back for the first time when Black Flag was available. The first one and AC3 stood out like a sore thumb while AC2 (Leonarrrrrrdo) and AC4 were -by far- the best entries in the series imo.
Bro'hood and Revelations were OK-ish but nothing special. Rogue was mostly forgettable after Black Flag. Unity (fully patched on a modern PC) and Syndicate are actually pretty great.
But AC1 was definitely -again, by far- the weakest one for me. AC3's saving grace was the conclusion of the Desmond Miles story arc which had its moments. I also liked the humor brought to the game by Shaun Hastings in AC3. However, AC1 and AC3 are both definitely at the very tail end if I had to come up with a ranking of my fav AssCreed games.
With regard to the topic at hand here: I think it is incredibly stupid to include the Yasuke character in a Japanese feudal setting. Japanese males are certainly not over-represented in western games so why not just go with a historically correct "normal" male Japanese Samurai warrior? They obviously went with Yasuke for maximum over-the-top diversity and that is just exaggerated and dumb.
I hope, if they ever make an African AssCreed, that they will at least be consistent then and add a second "white" (can also be Asian, Hispanic, whatever, ofc) main character in addition to a black female as well.
Now I know.
Kudos to Ubisoft for cancelling the project.EDIT: Sorry. I misread it.Just as @nguyen said, i hope they run out of Blackrock money and go back to making good games, with well written characters and stories.
I played AC1 at launch and was in love with the story and the mystery of it all.
Loved AC2, Brotherhood and Unity(didn't like the bugs in Unity at launch).
Liked Rogue and Syndicate.
AC: Origins and Odyssey helped me when i quit CSGO.
Hated AC3 and whatever pirate game black flag was.
It's fine to say you don't think it was great for Ubi to use a protagonist other than a Japanese Samurai in a Samurai era setting. That's a valid perception. But a few of the comments (removed now) have been plain racist shite.
Also - of note - Assassin's Creed games have never really been about historical accuracy - it's a sci-fi game (the animus - remember that concept?).
As for Samurai - here's a cultured take on it:
japandaily.jp/6-things-everybody-gets-wrong-about-samurai-2092/
My main problem is that it's the same darn game for the millionth time over and over again.I thought they did. Isn't it called Skull and Bones or something similar? I can't remember, it was not a widely popular game.
www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/ubisoft-comes-crawlin-back-to-steam/
Edit: The fact that they had to write an apology letter (that they still managed to fuck up) months before release date is a supermassive bad omen on its own.
Yes I am aware everyone it takes much more than that to make it viable to play.
But my point was they had all the needed sitting on a silver platter in front of them. Waiting 10 years and cutting half the game and making it a glorified ship game with shallow ship building mechanics made noone happy. I know they would have probably had to cut some things but come on.
The Japanese at that era were quite small height wise, averaging between 5-5.5ft. This can be seen visiting any museums or castles in Japan that displays authentic armor.
Now what did Ubi do? Brought a 6.5ft African dude, made him look like a giant compared to the locals, and having superpowers more than the Black Panther, by looking at the game videos.
No, really, just look at those videos with fighting combos and stuff!
Ubi just made the first African Samurai superhero! :laugh:
I guess we have World of Warships for that purpose, albeit set in a different era.
Guillemot still seems insistent on keeping with the live service/season pass scheme, but hopefully, hopefully, the huge dip in revenue when they drop the next slop title will clue them in that they're doing it wrong.