Ubisoft postpones "Assassin's Creed Shadows", lowers overall sales forecast
Due to disappointing sales figures for "Star Wars Outlaws", Ubisoft wants to do better with its next hit game. The share price takes a knock.
(Image: Shutterstock.com/Sergei Elagin)
Expectations were high, but sales of the highly anticipated "Star Wars Outlaws" have disappointed Ubisoft less than a month after its release. As a result, the French video game company has now revised its sales forecasts downwards and promises to learn from the release of this title. As a result, the next big game "Assassin's Creed Shadows" has been postponed until next year. Ubisoft is also doing away with the previous Season Pass model and is bringing the role-playing game to Steam on day one.
"Assassin's Creed Shadows" takes role-playing game fans to Japan and was originally due to be released on November 12, 2024. However, following the weaker than expected launch of "Star Wars Outlaws", the Ubisoft board has now decided to postpone the next title in the Assassin's Creed series until February 14, 2025. Although all game features are ready, the upcoming title will be further refined and optimized in the additional time now available based on feedback from the Star Wars game.
No more Season Pass, Steam on the first day
At the same time, Ubisoft is saying goodbye to the previously used Season Pass model with more expensive editions for a few days' advance access and cosmetic items as well as exclusive missions for pre-orders. This was also planned for "Assassin's Creed Shadows", but Ubisoft has already annoyed fans with a similar strategy for "Star Wars Outlaws". Instead, the game company promises that all buyers will be able to play it at the same time on February 14. However, pre-orders would receive the first expansion pack free of charge.
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In addition, "Assassin's Creed Shadows" will also be available on the Steam gaming platform on the first day of release. This is a departure from Ubisoft's previous strategy, as"Star Wars Outlaws" will not be available on the popular Steam distribution channel until November, although this game was released at the end of August.
Ubisoft lowers forecast, share price falls
Overall, Ubisoft is reducing its sales forecast for the current financial year 2024-25, which ends in March 2025, to 1.95 billion euros. According to Bloomberg, observers had expected around 2.42 billion euros for the year as a whole. In addition, Ubisoft expects sales of only 350 to 370 million euros for the current second financial quarter (July to September). In mid-July, Ubisoft had forecast around 500 million euros for these three months.
This did not go down well with investors. The Ubisoft share price fell by 4.5 percent on the Paris stock exchange yesterday. After the close of trading, the share price fell again, dropping almost 13 percent.
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