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[Lunatic_Gamer]

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was supposed to be released on November 15, but thanks to a considerable delay, it was pushed back to February 14. Then, the game’s branding was washed with a fresh dose of hot water following some design controversies tied to some merchandise, and now Ubisoft has confirmed the cancellation of any early access to the game.

Making Changes​

In the Assassin’s Creed Discord server, an official Q&A session revealed new details about the Assassin’s Creed Shadows collector’s edition, which is a super-sized bundle originally priced at almost $300.

Per the Q&A session, some monumental changes have been made:

• The early access portion of the offering has been cancelled. It will now be released on February 14 alongside the base game
• The game’s season pass has been scrapped, so this will understandably not be included with the collector’s edition as planned

These changes reflect an alteration in the game’s pricing. It has gone from around $279 to $229. It was also explained by Ubisoft that further changes might be made to the collector’s edition’s aesthetic, statue, steelbook, art book, and so on.

These changes might be inspired by the issues Ubisoft has had thus far maintaining historical accuracy and cultural representation. Further scandals in that area could be the final nail in the coffin for this game from a PR standpoint.

The Gold Edition of Assassin’s Creed Shadows was also planned to be released three days early and go hand-in-hand with a season pass, but given these recent comments, it’s almost guaranteed that the price of that edition will also drop, as will the digital offering and early access window.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Early Access Cancelled by Ubisoft

In a Q&A session on Discord, Ubisoft revealed that early access is cancelled for Assassin's Creed Shadows, amongst other things.

insider-gaming.com

 

[laynelane]

People were actually willing to pay almost $300 for a Ubisoft game.

 

[Codiox]

 

[Jaybe]

 

[Stuart360]

The fact they have scrapped the season pass makes me think that Ubi expect this game to flop, or atleast underperform compared to usual AC sales which tend to be big.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The must be seeing the preorder numbers and are afraid.

 

[diffusionx]

They had this one can’t miss bullet in their chamber - AC in Japan - and totally fucked it up because they’re run by shitlib idiots and morons. And yes it is political. And it’s probably going to result in them going out of business.

 

[Camreezie]

If this game fails just pack it up imo

 

[Daniel_Mallorca1985]

 

[thief183]

People were actually willing to pay almost $300 for a Ubisoft game.

Well, I guess it was more for the statue than for the game, I, for sure, wouldn't buy it not even at 40...

 

[jason10mm]

Wooooow, this must mean they had doubled or even tripled down on "yasuke" and had him doing stuff that they simply can't tweak or smooth over, and they have no faith that playing him through the base game would win anyone over. Surely they are not 'recasting' him though, right?

 

[Agent_Nobody]

It seemed so silly to go back to the split characters from AC Syndicate after the relative successes of AC Odyssey and Valhalla why fuck with it when it worked and sold? And making a historical figure one of the main character is kinda like the anti-thesis to Assassin’s Creed as a whole.

 

[March Climber]

The fact they have scrapped the season pass makes me think that Ubi expect this game to flop, or atleast underperform compared to usual AC sales which tend to be big.

Their dev studios are currently on strike.

 

[pudel]

Thats good news, right? No "early access" which just means "late access for everyone not paying extra" and no season pass seems to be very good. I mean it might help not much anymore with this game. But if they keep this up also for eventual future games...that would be great.

 

[Fbh]

Is there any logical reason to scrap the early access release besides them not being confident in the game? It makes it seems like there is stuff in there that they don't want getting out early and potentially affecting regular pre orders at the last minute.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[rm082e]

It seemed so silly to go back to the split characters from AC Syndicate after the relative successes of AC Odyssey and Valhalla why fuck with it when it worked and sold? And making a historical figure one of the main character is kinda like the anti-thesis to Assassin’s Creed as a whole.

I enjoyed Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla (little bit less). I would be down for another big AC game with two characters and swapping back and forth. But not like this. I'll go back and play Ghosts of Tsushima instead.

 

[pudel]

Is there any logical reason to scrap the early access release besides them not being confident in the game? It makes it seems like there is stuff in there that they don't want getting out early and potentially affecting regular pre orders at the last minute.

I would guess its just a common thing which fcks people off (unnecessarily) and they seem to want to reduce these things.

 

[lmimmfn]

Ubisoft have no faith in the game delivering financially.

 

[Saber]

Is there any logical reason to scrap the early access release besides them not being confident in the game? It makes it seems like there is stuff in there that they don't want getting out early and potentially affecting regular pre orders at the last minute.

Something I expeculated before is that the tower toy controversy might be just the tip of the ice berg. The game itself could be worse than that in terms of using things from them without doing proper research.

 

[ZehDon]

Ok, they've lost faith in it shifting units.

Assassin's Creed Japan should've been about as safe as a bet can be. How they went from a guaranteed hit to now landing just short of announcing it'll underperform really is a masterclass in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

 

[LectureMaster]

Why do I feel that Ubi are just scrambling and aimlessly trying things, without the capability to form a real solution?

 

[StereoVsn]

Ok, they've lost faith in it shifting units.

Assassin's Creed Japan should've been about as safe as a bet can be. How they went from a guaranteed hit to now landing just short of announcing it'll underperform really is a masterclass in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Yep, it’s absolutely hilarious how they have misjudged the market like this.

Somebody about 4-5 years ago thought that instead of going with a straightforward idea their fans wanted, ie AC in Japan, Ubisoft should go for social commentary.

Notably this was after the absolutely stupid Watch Dogs 3 flopped, but where Odyssey and Valhalla succeeded.

And yet, here we are. Instead of a best seller they are going to get shit on by absolutely everyone.

 

[xanaum]

What's left to actually cancel this game?

 

[TransTrender]

I thought this was already part of the original delay announcement.
Release date pushed back, no early access, all pre-orders cancelled, and all new pre-orders will get the 'first DLC season' for free.

 

[TrebleShot]

I thought this was already part of the original delay announcement.
Release date pushed back, no early access, all pre-orders cancelled, and all new pre-orders will get the 'first DLC season' for free.

same must have misread it or something

 

[CLW]

Over/under before complete Uni collapse and bidding war for the IP between MS and Sony?

2026

 

[Rush2112]

Basically, its getting the suicide squad treatment.

 

[EMR]

These dumbos will press every panic button instead of fixing the real problems, huh.

 

[kizito]

Is there any logical reason to scrap the early access release besides them not being confident in the game? It makes it seems like there is stuff in there that they don't want getting out early and potentially affecting regular pre orders at the last minute.

Yes there is a reason. Ubisoft seems to be trying as hard as they can to get a bit Concurrent Users on the first day, and early access tends to dilute that number. Everything they do so far seems to point to the pre-orders numbers being far below their expectations (day one release on Steam, price reduction, battle pass cancellation, early access cancellation...).

They try to make the launch seem like a success in order to attract more gamers who would think the game is successful. Seems quite desperate in my opinion.

As someone mentioned, AC in Japan was the silver bullet, a game waited by fans of the franchise for more than a decade. How they managed to blow it up (and Yasuke is in big part responsible for that) is still beyond my comprehension.

 

[King Dazzar]

I wonder why the season pass aspect has changed. With the delay I wonder if they're wanting to change the base game content wise (add some of the DLC upfront) or simply all the planned DLC has been put on hold indefinitely as it all needs to be redone. But that doesn't make sense to me as I'm sure they'll be wanting to do a semi GaaS thing like they did with Valhalla so whatever happens they'd need content to be flowing after launch. Regardless, I would be surprised if they don't have something of value in amongst all the development they've done.

All a bit of a mess. It'll be interesting to see what gets released finally in Feb in terms of quality and how much is reworked & changed.

 

[ByWatterson]

I predict they're gonna delay until next fall to give themselves time to excuse Yasuke.

Kinda kidding kinda not.

 

[ZehDon]

Yes there is a reason. Ubisoft seems to be trying as hard as they can to get a bit Concurrent Users on the first day, and early access tends to dilute that number. Everything they do so far seems to point to the pre-orders numbers being far below their expectations (day one release on Steam, price reduction, battle pass cancellation, early access cancellation...)...

Unlikely. If all they wanted was big current numbers, they'd just launch it on Game Pass and hand it away to Xbox gamers for a pittance. Their company is losing millions, and they're relying on Assassin's Creed to save them. So, they don't care about concurrent users, they only care about sales. Key distinction. Removing early access means real, actual paying customers can't see the game before it goes on sale. This tells me Ubisoft expect opinions from actual players who have early access to tank sales. I suspect what we saw of the game that caused such an uproar was the tip of the iceberg, and they're scrambling to rip out as many bad creative decisions as they can before the game launches.

 

[Gaiff]

Yes there is a reason. Ubisoft seems to be trying as hard as they can to get a bit Concurrent Users on the first day, and early access tends to dilute that number. Everything they do so far seems to point to the pre-orders numbers being far below their expectations (day one release on Steam, price reduction, battle pass cancellation, early access cancellation...).

They try to make the launch seem like a success in order to attract more gamers who would think the game is successful. Seems quite desperate in my opinion.

As someone mentioned, AC in Japan was the silver bullet, a game waited by fans of the franchise for more than a decade. How they managed to blow it up (and Yasuke is in big part responsible for that) is still beyond my comprehension.

I don’t think responsible is the correct word in this situation. The historical figure is certainly not responsible for that, much less the video game character lol.

 

[Generic]

I still can't believe so many people are angry about a game because there's a black samurai on it.

 

[DaciaJC]

I don’t think responsible is the correct word in this situation. The historical figure is certainly not responsible for that, much less the video game character lol.

It's pretty obvious what he meant, no?

"How they managed to blow it up (and choosing to cast a poorly documented African dude in the samurai role in place of a native Japanese character is in big part responsible for that) etc etc."

 

[Laptop1991]

Ha Ha, Cancel is becoming Ubisoft's catchprase lol.

 

[StereoVsn]

It's pretty obvious what he meant, no?

"How they managed to blow it up (and choosing to cast a poorly documented African dude in the samurai role in place of a native Japanese character is in big part responsible for that) etc etc."

Folks wanted an AC game in Japan like Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla (well, maybe not like Valhalla, lol).

Instead Ubi went for brave social commentary directed at modern audiences. Apparently that modern audience didn’t pre-order enough so now they are shitting their pants.

 

[Hero of Spielberg]

Folks wanted an AC game in Japan like Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla (well, maybe not like Valhalla, lol).

Instead Ubi went for brave social commentary directed at modern audiences. Apparently that modern audience didn’t pre-order enough so now they are shitting their pants.

The ‘modern audience’ never shows up. Because the few of them that do exist don’t actually participate in the hobby, they just want it catered to them.

 

[Bernardougf]

Delay the fucking game, cut the two stupid main characters, apologize for being dumb and forcing dei and do a kick ass samurai japanese character story... take the press and purple crazy hits but win the heart of 90% of gamers and sell this shit like crazy.


They will never do this in a million years ... and thats why this game is doomed.

 

[Pejo]

Just cancel the game, make an all new AC set in Japan reusing most of the assets. This one is tainted and is gonna bomb no matter how many of these little changes are done. Just my opinion, they can also feel free to lose millions and millions of dollars instead.

 

[Bernardougf]

I still can't believe so many people are angry about a game because there's a black samurai on it.

A black samurai game released maybe 10-15 years ago would've been more than fine probably .. unfortunately normal people are tired of being shoved diversity all the time down their throats, the entertaiment market as a whole its just too much saturated with gender swaps, girl bosses, race swaps and so on .... yes things started good for DEI but the overcorrection and preaching became too much to remain unnoticed even for the mainstream, so in the current climate this game appears as just one more hypocritical case of forced DEI that never would happen in a opposed case... you would never ever see a white protagonist in an asscreed game set in historic africa for example, can you imagine ? A white lead in africa killing africans while collecting shit in a asscreed game ?.... well ... if you cant imagine this is not hard to see how an african samurai in feudal japan is just as ridiculous of an idea.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

A black samurai game released maybe 10-15 years ago would've been more than fine probably .. unfortunately normal people are tired of being shoved diversity all the time down their throats, the entertaiment market as a whole its just too much saturated with gender swaps, girl bosses, race swaps and so on .... yes things started good for DEI but the overcorrection and preaching became too much to remain unnoticed even for the mainstream, so in the current climate this game appears as just one more hypocritical case of forced DEI that never would happen in a opposed case... you would never ever see a white protagonist in an asscreed game set in historic africa for example, can you imagine ? A white lead in africa killing africans while collecting shit in a asscreed game ?.... well ... if you cant imagine this is not hard to see how an african samurai in feudal japan is just as ridiculous of an idea.

Exactly.

The one caveat going against what you say will be something like... "It's fiction. It's a game. So anything can happen".

But just like anything in life, people still expect norms to a certain degree. And when things get wacky, that's when people complain. And then they'll analyze what the hell is going on with the company doing it that way. And since it involves a business, people will naturally suspect there's something going on.

Your African killing thing already got stomped on in RE 5 or 6. Whichever game was the one based in Africa. Makes sense there's tons of African zombies to kill and people complained it was oppressive.

As for another example of people going haywire would be like a game based in Peru. But instead of locals as the focus, it'd be the former (and recently dead) Japanese president and his family. You'd be focusing on him and his Japanese family in Peru. And it's not even a made up scenario. It's a game based on a real person and his family. But no doubt, people would complain why make a Peruvian game based on a Japanese guy. Be respectful and make a game with lots of locals.

 

[MayauMiao]

I still can't believe so many people are angry about a game because there's a black samurai on it.

Its not about a black samurai. Its a game sets in Japan, but somehow stars a black character instead of ethnic Japanese.

 

[Doom85]

A black samurai game released maybe 10-15 years ago would've been more than fine probably .. unfortunately normal people are tired of being shoved diversity all the time down their throats, the entertaiment market as a whole its just too much saturated with gender swaps, girl bosses, race swaps and so on .... yes things started good for DEI but the overcorrection and preaching became too much to remain unnoticed even for the mainstream, so in the current climate this game appears as just one more hypocritical case of forced DEI that never would happen in a opposed case... you would never ever see a white protagonist in an asscreed game set in historic africa for example, can you imagine ? A white lead in africa killing africans while collecting shit in a asscreed game ?.... well ... if you cant imagine this is not hard to see how an african samurai in feudal japan is just as ridiculous of an idea.

But if there’s no massive preaching in this AC game (and I mean actual preaching, Yasuke simply being there is not “preaching”) which you have zero proof there will be (spare me fucking speculation, that shit is as worthless as a 4chan “leak”), then everything you said is irrelevant unless you just want to admit you’re letting your own personal politics affect any possibility of enjoying the game, which is just as nonsensical to me as those back then who let their own personal politics affect any possibility of them enjoying Resident Evil 5.

Also, “historic”, give me a fucking break. Yes, Ubisoft was stupid to make the claim otherwise, but the facts are this series has such “historic” elements such as lighting-blasting Pope, Medusa, an actual Valhalla, and all revolving around massive conspiracies and secret Illuminati-like organizations involving time-traveling mind-fusing and aliens or some weird shit. This series is about historically accurate as that 2004 King Arthur movie, LOL.

And there are a fuck ton of Japanese/Asian male leads (since apparently Japanese/Asian woman “don’t count” for whatever nonsensical reason) in samurai and other past time periods for video games. Nioh 1 even had a white lead. Oh, but the second a black lead showed up, suddenly the nitpicking began. And I’m tired of all the nitpicking being shoved down the rest of our throats because some of you all won’t stop talking about your own personal politics.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Its not about a black samurai. Its a game sets in Japan, but somehow stars a black character instead of ethnic Japanese.

You can tell UBI doesnt really give a shit about being respectful or looking into details. They even got that torii gate wrong on the funko doll.

They probably all sit in online conference calls going over ideas with little actual thought of what they are building. Just make something that might be cool. And that torii gate incident was probably some guy who did a google image search about feudal Japan and picked it. And nobody else at the office even realized the gaffe either. So it goes to show how little knowledge they got making a game based in Japan.

 

[Bernardougf]

But if there’s no massive preaching in this AC game (and I mean actual preaching, Yasuke simply being there is not “preaching”) which you have zero proof there will be (spare me fucking speculation, that shit is as worthless as a 4chan “leak”), then everything you said is irrelevant unless you just want to admit you’re letting your own personal politics affect any possibility of enjoying the game, which is just as nonsensical to me as those back then who let their own personal politics affect any possibility of them enjoying Resident Evil 5.

Also, “historic”, give me a fucking break. Yes, Ubisoft was stupid to make the claim otherwise, but the facts are this series has such “historic” elements such as lighting-blasting Pope, Medusa, an actual Valhalla, and all revolving around massive conspiracies and secret Illuminati-like organizations involving time-traveling mind-fusing and aliens or some weird shit. This series is about historically accurate as that 2004 King Arthur movie, LOL.

And there are a fuck ton of Japanese/Asian male leads (since apparently Japanese/Asian woman “don’t count” for whatever nonsensical reason) in samurai and other past time periods for video games. Nioh 1 even had a white lead. Oh, but the second a black lead showed up, suddenly the nitpicking began. And I’m tired of all the nitpicking being shoved down the rest of our throats because some of you all won’t stop talking about your own personal politics.

Well son .. my politcs dosent matter at all..and yours dosent matter either ... what matters is sales ... and just sales... and as things are starting to show with several games with dei controversy bombing, this thing is not restricted to me shoving anything down your throat, but widespread in the gaming consumer community, so you can be upset as you want, it wont help the game sell better. The market is speaking, and the language is different than yours... or the devs.

 

[Doom85]

Well son .. my politcs dosent matter at all..and yours dosent matter either ... what matters is sales ... and just sales... and as things are starting to show with several games with dei controversy bombing, this thing is not restricted to me shoving anything down your throat, but widespread in the gaming consumer community, so you can be upset as you want, it wont help the game sell better. The market is speaking, and the language is different than yours... or the devs.

Funny, I know a certain game some of you claim “failed” due to politics, but um, remind me, what did I just say about that?

Lego approached Sony with the idea to create a "Lego Horizon" game

I never thought I would make two threads about this game today, but this was too good to ignore: Sony's PlayStation is the market leader for video game consoles, a dominance built on the backs of violent stories like "The Last of Us" and "God of War." But the company is learning that bloody...

www.neogaf.com

You do realize that there are more things in life than stupid ass politics and that maybe, JUST MAYBE, a games sells or fails because of quality or lack of of the gameplay and such and not because, “oh noes, they put a black person in it!” So keep claiming you’re focusing on sales and not politics because the facts show that no, you ARE focused on politics.

 

[AJUMP23]

Rudderless.

They need to bring back the people that abused the staff. They made good games.

 

[Bernardougf]

Funny, I know a certain game some of you claim “failed” due to politics, but um, remind me, what did I just say about that?

Lego approached Sony with the idea to create a "Lego Horizon" game

I never thought I would make two threads about this game today, but this was too good to ignore: Sony's PlayStation is the market leader for video game consoles, a dominance built on the backs of violent stories like "The Last of Us" and "God of War." But the company is learning that bloody...

www.neogaf.com

You do realize that there are more things in life than stupid ass politics and that maybe, JUST MAYBE, a games sells or fails because of quality or lack of of the gameplay and such and not because, “oh noes, they put a black person in it!” So keep claiming you’re focusing on sales and not politics because the facts show that no, you ARE focused on politics.

You are so aggravated by the situation that I think is much more political for you than for me... since usually politcs bring much more anger to discussions than games, you are like that woman screaming loudly at somebody asking him not to scream, you are here screaming to leave politics off when politics are not being directly discussed here outside of you.

Anyway if you think that recent DEI flagged games are not failing because of DEI thats fine, thats your opinion,we dont have to agree on this. but they will probably keep failing for now on .. so keep trying to find other reasons you will gonna need them.