Assassin’s Creed Shadows is on the brink of release, and Ubisoft’s fortunes have never been higher. What started as another installment in the classic franchise has turned into a hub of gaming culture and broader socio-political discourse. It’s not merely another Assassin’s Creed game—this is Ubisoft proving it can still take the lead in the open-world genre, just as it did ten years ago. It’s about whether Shadows can be a critical and financial success when Ubisoft needs one so badly. And it’s about whether the game can ride out the controversy that has enveloped its main character since the game was announced.
Fundamentally, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be, uh, an Assassin’s Creed game. That is to say that fans can expect more of what they’ve been getting for years: huge open-world roaming, sneaky killings, historical storytelling, and RPG elements which, depending on taste, enhance or detract from the series’ original vision. There will be thrilling moments of parkour and combat alongside maddening AI quirks and repetitive mission design. This equation has sustained the franchise to date since its release, but the question now is if “more of the same” will suffice in 2025.
Ubisoft’s financial results remain to be seen, but the company is clearly desperate for a win. Catastrophic live-service experiments, underwhelming sales from Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and middling performances from Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Mirage have put it in a precarious position. Assassin’s Creed remains one of the greatest video game franchises with over 200 million units sold as of September 2022, yet a few of the latest releases were not up to the wizardry of Ezio’s Trilogy or Black Flag.
Valhalla, the recent big release, brought in a staggering $1 billion revenue, but to a pretty lean reception. It was good enough to be engaging to gamers, but it wasn’t good enough to instill the passion that fans of the series felt. Five years later, can Shadows be content with being just “good enough”? The gaming scene has evolved, and the franchise’s legacy is not as ironclad as it was in 2020. Ubisoft must realize that releasing another Assassin’s Creed game is not enough to guarantee success. It has to be a declaration—one that assures the series is still innovative and can captivate players in a field with open-world RPGs galore.
Adding to the stress is the ongoing furor over Assassin’s Creed Shadows, primarily based on Yasuke, one of the titular protagonists of the game. Despite being a historical character, Yasuke becoming an available playable character has set ablaze heated arguments, primarily due to his ethnicity. Reasons range from historical accuracy concerns to outright racist backlash from certain parts of the gaming community. Ubisoft stood by its decision to include Yasuke but refrained from labeling all criticism as racially inspired.
Unfortunately, the controversy already affected how the game is perceived. Others have complained to ridiculous extremes, altering the cover of the game with George Floyd or replacing Yasuke with a white character. Others have cried foul about the presence of a foreign protagonist in a feudal Japan-set game, conveniently overlooking the many occasions non-native characters have served as the protagonists of historical fiction without much ado. The backlash is not so much over historical correctness but rather about a broader culture war in the video game community, one in which the same criticisms have been levied at other games before release.
History has shown that “woke” branded games released ahead of time end up shedding that label if successful. Games like Baldur’s Gate 3, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Space Marine 2 were originally caught up in such controversies but emerged unscathed when the completed game was compelling. Shadows is more profound than most, however, and there is little leeway for a last-minute 180 in opinion. It will need to convert skeptics not just on the basis of good gameplay but on an unequivocally outstanding experience. If it merely coasts in as just another Assassin’s Creed entry, it puts its success in danger of being tainted with scandal and not justifying Ubisoft’s desperation.
Ubisoft has gotten itself into a bind. To the credit side, it desperatenly needs Shadows to become a back to the good ol’ days for both critical success and the wallet. Meanwhile, the game is coming out into an open-world RPG market in which burnout is a reality and many gamers are frustrated with previous Assassin’s Creed titles that failed to break the mold. Added to that is the divisive politics surrounding Yasuke, and Shadows has much more on its shoulders than any other game in the series.
If Shadows is merely another Assassin’s Creed, then that may not be sufficient. The game needs to be better than the previous games in ways they’re not. Ubisoft simply can’t have another game that’s just “good enough.” For this one, good enough isn’t good enough.
