Today, Ubisoft announced another delay for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Originally slated to launch on November 15, 2024, the game suffered the first delay to February 14 as Ubisoft attempted to avoid the same fates of Star Wars Outlaws and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Now, the game has been pushed back to March 20, once again with the goal of providing a better game at launch.
With the same note, the publisher revealed that it had appointed advisors to review ‘transformational strategic and capital options to create the best value for stakeholders.’ Translating from investor speak, they will counsel the company on the previously reported potential sale options. This review process will be overseen by the independent members of the Board of Directors.
Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ubisoft, stated:
We made good progress on the strategic and execution reviews initiated a few months ago and are confident that this will position Ubisoft for a stronger future. We have taken decisive steps to reshape the Group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximize value creation. We also recently appointed leading advisors and are actively exploring various strategic and capitalistic options to unlock the full value potential of our assets. We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises.
Additionally, we are all behind our teams’ efforts to create the most ambitious Assassin’s Creed
opus of the franchise and made the decision to provide an extra month of development to
Shadows in order to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months
that will enable us to fully deliver on the potential of the game and finish the year on a strong
note.
The importance of a successful launch for Assassin’s Creed Shadows cannot be overstated. In today’s report, Ubisoft also revealed that Q3 FY2024-25 net bookings will be lower than expected (at around €300 million) due to lower-than-anticipated Holiday sales, mainly for Star Wars Outlaws, as well as the discontinuation of XDefiant, planned for June.
On the other hand, Ubisoft is continuing its cost-reduction process. The publisher now expects to exceed €200 million in reduction of its fixed cost base by FY2025-26 vs. FY2022-23 on an annualized basis. In December, three production studios in high-cost geographies were closed.
