The release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been postponed to March as Ubisoft’s management considers selling the company

Ubisoft is delaying Assassin’s Creed Shadows again, but this time it’s not just because of concerns about the quality of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The French publisher is postponing the launch of its fresh samurai-era open world from February 14 to March 20, 2025, as it examines “various strategic and capitalist transformation options to extract the best value for stakeholders,” breaking the news of a possible enormous “deal” to follow.

The significance of this remains open to speculation, but rumors have recently circulated that Ubi’s first family, the Guillemot brothers, were conspiring with Tencent to buy out the company, while minority shareholders dissatisfied with the company’s falling stock price have been demanding that management “take Ubisoft private or let it sell it to a strategic investor.” So this could be Big. At least, greater than the delay of a single video game.

“Following the strategic and executive reviews initiated by the Executive Committee several months ago, Ubisoft is taking decisive steps to transform the Group to deliver best-in-class player experiences, increase operational efficiency and maximize value creation,” the article reads “strategic update” from Ubisoftpublished this afternoon.

“Ubisoft announced today that it has appointed lead advisors to review and implement various transformational strategic and capitalist options to extract the best value for stakeholders,” it continued. “This process will be supervised by independent members of the Management Board. Ubisoft will inform the market in accordance with applicable regulations if and when the transaction takes place.”

Ubisoft has been in a tough financial situation for some time, losing almost half of its share value in 2024, partly due to the “soft” performance of Star Wars Outlaws. Therefore, they limit their expenses. In December, Ubisoft discontinued the PvP shooter XDefiant and laid off approximately 277 people. According to today’s statement, the shutdown of XDefiant involved the closure of “three production studios in high-cost countries,” such as regions where wages are higher.

The statement goes on to say that the company “will continue to pursue significant cost reductions through a highly selective approach to investment.” Ubisoft now expects to reduce its “fixed cost base” (in other words, costs that include more predictable, recurring business expenses such as employee salaries) by €200 million in fiscal year 2025-2026 compared to 2022-23 annual base.

Added to this is the delay of Shadows, a moderately promising historical work that seems to have too many influences in the wake of Outlaws.

“Additionally, as part of a renewed focus on the quality of gameplay and immersive experience of day one, it has been decided to provide an additional month for development of Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” Ubisoft writes. “This additional time will allow the team to better leverage player feedback collected over the past three months and lend a hand create the best conditions for launch by continuing to work closely with the increasingly positive Assassin’s Creed community. The game is currently scheduled for March 20. “

I don’t have the knowledge to play fortune teller about the fate of Ubisoft. Instead, I’ll end by pointing you to this refreshing Alice0 (RPS in the Room) article from 2022, in which CEO Yves Guillemot talks about Ubisoft’s independence while stating that they would obviously be elated to sell the farm to anyone with a really, really enormous sum of money.