There’s a Lot of Pressure on Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Has there ever been a game with so much pressure on it as Assassin’s Creed Shadows? Ubisoft need it to be a hit, and the difference it could make if its flops is gigantic.

Not that there would be any kind of surprise in it doing well. This isn’t a Starfield level gamble, where you have an unproven IP and a sudden exclusivity. This is Assassin’s Creed, and while it doesn’t always burn up the forum inches in hardcore spaces, it always sells well. Valhalla topped a billion in revenue. Odyssey and Origins both sold over 10 million units. Shadows has the “In case of emergency, Japan” element going for it too.

It won’t be enough. Ubisoft are in a difficult position. They have too many staff members, working on not enough viable projects. They have white elephants like Beyond Good and Evil 2, a game that will never make its costs back. That’s if it ever sees the light of day. They’re trying to sell, but only under the proviso that the same family can continue running it. Unsurprisingly, there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of interest.

Tencent seem like the most likely to take over, or at least in part. The last we heard, another company would be formed through which Ubisoft’s many IPs could be licenced out. Obviously these discussions tend to be private and we must take everything we read with a pinch of salt. But at this point, we know that things aren’t looking good for the House of Rayman.

So why is Shadows such an important game? Why is there so much pressure on this particular entry? Because it needs to prove the series still has legs.

Standing in the Shadows of Ubisoft

Ubi is a relatively successful company, at least on the surface. Barely a year goes by where they don’t have something noteworthy to show, and it either sells a lot or gets some critical acclaim or both. But in an industry of longer development times and increasing costs, it seems the mammoth teams behind the Ubisoft way of developing things has become something of a problem. There have been layoffs, but the company’s owners are still looking to sell.

Having your flagship series bomb at this point would be disastrous. You want to be able to show the world that you still have a viable product to offer and that people will still turn out for it. Prince of Persia might not have been a success, regardless of the rave reviews. The less said about Skull and Bones the better. But Assassin’s Creed is a franchise that demands the attention of gamers everywhere.

Will that still be true when Shadows releases next month? There’s not much reason to doubt it. But until those initial sales figures come in, there will be a lot of people holding their breath and hoping for the best.

Whatever the outcome, the biggest questions around Ubisoft go beyond the launch of their next biggest game. How do they turn things around, even with external support? That’s a harder question to answer.