According to Gaming insider Jason Schreier, the upcoming and highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Shadows might hold the key to Ubisoft’s future, as the company might be currently at a critical juncture in it’s decades long tenure. In a recent Bloomberg report on the Gaming industry, insider Jason Schreier has pointed out Ubisoft’s precarious position, with it’s future being heavily decided and probably sealed by the latest installment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
Starting from the 2000’s through early 2010’s, Ubisoft was one of the biggest names in the Videogame industry, with multiple Award winning franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Farcry under it’s wing, the publisher was also one of the favorites among the average gamer. However, slowly from the past decade the publisher’s fortunes and reputation as a leading player in the industry began to dwindle and decline, with several missteps and underwhelming receptions for many of it’s hyped releases like Skull and Bones (which the publisher had stated as the first Quadruple A title in the industry), XDefiant and even last year’s Star Wars: Outlaws, Ubisoft is definitely at it’s lowest from both critical and commercial standpoints in the history of the company.
There are multiple factors that have contributed to the downfall of the once-acclaimed publisher and among them is the overuse of a formulaic pattern in gameplay across multiple titles, massive Open Worlds that feel empty and cluttered, random bugs and other frequent technical issues and most notably, the company’s heavy usage of micro-transactions even in it’s full priced titles which often led to many gamers feel exploited. As a result, Ubisoft is currently under enormous pressure to turn things around for good in this year.
However, among all of the failures of these much anticipated titles from Ubisoft, only the Assassin’s Creed series has managed to stay relevant and competitive in the industry, with the last game in the franchise (Assassin’s Creed Mirage) reaching 5 million in sales figures in it’s first three months. And so it only seems logical that the latest entry in the decade long series can turn out to be the savior for the publisher this year, and determine Ubisoft’s path forward.
And this is maybe one of the reasons for the delay of the upcoming title, as the publisher would likely want to make sure that it ticks all the boxes when it finally launches in 2025.
