A poster of the video game “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” in Paris on October 22, 2024 (AFP / Dimitar DILKOFF)
French publisher Ubisoft has just postponed its video game “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” for the second time. If the group has lowered its financial forecasts in passing, such a decision remains common to ensure the quality of production and preserve the image of the company, according to specialists interviewed by AFP.
Initially scheduled for November 15, 2024, the next episode of Ubisoft’s main series was postponed for the first time to February 14, 2025. Its release is now set for March 20, a few days before the end of its fiscal year.
“Although an additional month may not seem like much, it will allow our teams to better integrate player comments collected over the last three months,” argued the group’s CEO, Yves Guillemot, in announcing this postponement.
Initial videos had raised doubts among certain players as to the final quality of the title, particularly in terms of character animation. But, since the announcement of the first postponement, new images have been more reassuring.
“We want to continue this momentum and (…) refine the game mechanics and the balance of progression,” explained Ubisoft financial director Frédérick Duguet.
– “A lousy game is lousy forever” –
Postponing a release “is not rare” and can be “clearly beneficial”, assures AFP consultant and content creator Benoit Reinier, known under the pseudonym Ex Serv on the internet, for whom “the last moments of development are the most important.”
“Developers will be able to remove bugs or refine small animations,” explains this former journalist who now advises studios. “It doesn’t seem like much, but when reflected over dozens of hours of play, it makes the difference between a good game and a great game.”
“A delay is only temporary, (a game) sucks is forever,” warned the president of the American studio Valve, Gabe Newell, in a documentary on the 25 years of the game “Half-Life” in 2023, taking up a well-known adage in the industry.
However, such a decision is rarely taken lightly since it can have significant consequences, particularly financial.
The first three-month postponement of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” for example cost Ubisoft some 20 million euros, according to Yves Guillemot.
And, if developers benefit from a little more time to refine their title, they may also experience a longer “crunch”, as we call this period of intense work preceding the release of a game.
“Everyone prefers to release a good game”, underlines David Rabineau, head of the independent French studio Homo Ludens but, “for the teams, it depends enormously on the quality of the basic working environment”.
– Question d’image –
For Ubisoft, it is also a question of image: the publisher is regularly accused of releasing poorly polished titles, despite the publication of updates correcting certain bugs from the day the game is released, a practice now widespread throughout the industry.
This was one of the criticisms leveled at “Star Wars: Outlaws”, released at the end of August, whose sales were disappointing.
“Players are extremely demanding and that’s what pushed them to delay + Assassin’s Creed Shadows +”, underlines Benoit Reinier.
For him, the stakes are high: “it’s the last chance game” for Ubisoft.
In the midst of stock market turmoil and while a takeover risk has emerged, commercial success for “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” is indeed essential to give the company a little fresh air and allow it to negotiate its future more calmly.
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