It seems Ubisoft knows that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla isn’t the most popular game in the franchise.
Ubisoft has been elusive in talking about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s unit sales, but they revealed that as of February 2022, it made over $ 1 billion in revenue, making it the second most profitable title in Ubisoft’s entire history. It was also a highly awarded title, but some of the criticisms it received led to changes in subsequent games.
The big elephant in the room in the matter of this game was how big it is. This isn’t just in terms of the map area of the open world, but a general critique that the game length was far too big, and some players also criticized it for perceived repetitiveness. As a result, subsequent games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and last week’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows were made and advertised to be much smaller.
We have been reporting on some metrics that indicated how successful Assassin’s Creed Shadows was. As it turns out, that information came from an internal communication in Ubisoft. And Ubisoft discussed something else in that communication as well.
As reported by Kotaku, Ubisoft management told their employees why they think Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ success still hasn’t eclipsed the sales of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. They said this:
“Valhalla launched under extraordinary conditions — in the middle of a global pandemic, with widespread lockdowns and brand-new console hardware.
It was a perfect storm we may never see again. That’s why it’s more meaningful to compare Shadows to entries like Origins, Odyssey, and Mirage — games released in more typical cycles. And in that frame, Shadows is already setting a new bar as illustrated above.”
Ubisoft also made another argument. Because Assassin’s Creed Shadows released in March, far from the peak period of sales over the holidays. Of course, they did this to ensure that the game would release with no technical issues, and that it would be in the best form that it would take.
Because of Ubisoft’s choices, Assassin’s Creed Shadows turned out to be a very critically successful title. The debate about releasing during the holidays remains as contentious as ever, however. It could be argued that gamers will buy Ubisoft’s games knowing they will launch with issues, simply because of the convenience of getting a game in time for the holidays.
But then again, it also brings up the question of why Ubisoft doesn’t work their development schedules around so that their games are ready for the holidays. Maybe this is something they can try to do moving forward, as we await how Ubisoft’s future will itself play out.
