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Assassin's Creed Shadows
GRTV News - Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed
And Ubisoft notes that it has hired advisors to help navigate troubled financial waters.
Audio transcription
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV News, today we have an exciting one to talk about, not necessarily exciting for necessarily a good reason but exciting because it's a big bit of news. Yesterday evening had some really exciting things overall actually because of Xbox revealed that there was a developer direct coming later this month and we're going to see a bunch of big, promising, exciting games coming out. Lego announced that there was a Game Boy coming out, we had a tonne more Switch 2 leaks but we also, amid all of that, got a bit of information from Ubisoft talking about the company as a whole briefly and also about Assassin's Creed Shadows in particular. Mainly in that the game has been delayed but I actually think it's quite a smart delay in many ways but I'll get into why. So, Assassin's Creed Shadows has been delayed again, will launch in March and Ubisoft admits the company might have to be sold off. So we all knew that at least one of the many highly anticipated games set to launch in February was going to be delayed and the first one has decided to go into the shadows. Ubisoft confirms that Assassin's Creed Shadows that was originally meant to launch last November has been delayed from the 14th of February to the 20th of March. The officially stated reason for the delay is to allow the team to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months and help create the best conditions for launch. Let's hope that means feedback from actual players and not those who keep complaining about the game being woke because of its playable characters. Another interesting thing in the press release is that Ubisoft also acknowledges that the company might be sold off to interested parties. Leading advisors have been appointed to review and pursue transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders. One of the negative consequences of this is that we're told they are expecting to exceed 200 million euros in reduction of its fixed cost base by the end of the next fiscal year so expect even more layoffs and maybe even shutdowns in the coming months. So a couple of interesting things to take from that. The first thing is obviously in regards to the delay itself. Now Eric actually mentions it in the news piece there where he says that one of the big games in February had to be delayed and I agree because right now February is an absolutely packed month. We've seen some developers and publishers make some quite intelligent decisions like the folk over at Warhorse who decide to pull Kingdom Come Deliverance forward by like almost a week I guess meaning it launches at the start of February which gives people plenty of time to enjoy Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 before all the other stuff start coming out. But middle of February and onwards is rammed with big things. Civilization 7, Monster Hunter Wilds at the end of the month, Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii. Just a handful of the things that we know are going to be coming in February. And we also know as well that Assassin's Creed Shadows because of the position that Ubisoft kind of finds itself in a little bit. Assassin's Creed Shadows is a game that needs to do well. It needs to perform really well for Ubisoft and one thing that it's going to be sort of fighting against is those other games if it releases at that time because people have to decide what they want to pick up. So I think it's a good decision to give the game a little bit of a chance to breathe. I would expect there to be more bigger games launching in March than we know of as of right now. Maybe the Xbox developer directly this month will show that Xbox has something planned for them. But at the moment in time Assassin's Creed Shadows is pretty much one of the biggest games if not the biggest game launching in March meaning it has a chance to really succeed."
"So I think yeah again I think that's a smart delay. I don't think you know you don't delay a game by month because it's not in a you know a great state. If it's not ready for launch you'd see them delay it significantly further but a month screams to me that they just want to give the game the opportunity to breathe in the market which is smart because I think more games should do that. Give people a chance to play them as well. The other thing of note from that press release that Ubisoft shared is the addressing of the financial state that Ubisoft is in. So they say that they've brought on leading advisors which to me already sort of kind of shouts incompetence in a way that the Ubisoft executives don't have any idea what they're doing. A little bit. It's they have no idea how to run this company more clearly because that's the way they're doing it or alternatively it's a nefarious tactic to like short the stock or something so that they can I don't know the killer box can buy it or I don't know. But you don't bring on leading advisors to review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders as they properly word it because the company's in a good state. This is sort of last what do they call it last chance saloon or whatever. So not great. And the other thing they mention is that they're expecting to exceed 200 million euros in reduction of its fixed cost base."
"And if that's the case then yes it probably means we are going to see layoffs and probably even more studio shutdowns. Ubisoft is a big big publisher with lots of offices and studios around the world and if they need to cut costs one of the best ways or one of the quickest ways to do that should I say is to close down some studios. It's not great for the industry it's not great for the employees but it will save Ubisoft money and we see all the time in the games industry especially in 2024 where there was like 15000 layoffs and it looks like Ubisoft is going to be one of those ones that will lay off people in 2025 if anything is to be taken from this. But yeah I don't really you know I think the Assassin's Creed Shadows delay is smart and I think that it's it's actually if anything actually for someone like myself it's it's it's actually welcome because I want to play Assassin's Creed Shadows but I also want to play some of the other things that come out in February and I can't do everything you know the same with people as well everyone has busy lives now you get a chance to do things in a bit more sort of freeing fashion."
"What I really don't like on the other hand is the way they framed that you know review and pursue various transformation strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders you know it's it shows that Ubisoft is really not a very a consumer friendly publisher anymore not many publishers are consumer friendly but it shows that Ubisoft is probably one of the most one of the least consumer friendly ones of the bunch at the moment in time but again maybe that will change in the future if someone comes along and buys them out and acquires the company you know hopefully hopefully someone explores that option because Ubisoft has a lot of IP that I think is not necessarily being utilised in the way that it should but yeah that's all the time that I have in today's episode of GRTV news let us know what you think about all of this below are you excited for Assassin's Creed Shadows are you concerned about the direction Ubisoft's going tell me all about it below and otherwise I'll see you now on Monday for the next one so just take care and enjoy your weekend see you in the next one"
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