Assassin’s Creed Shadowsseems to be the huge success that Ubisoft wanted the game to be. Yet, the company has been quick to dispell any comparison to the release ofValhalla, the last open-world game in the series. Ubisoft sees different circumstances behind the release of both games, and acknowledges that in sales.
There was a lot going on behind the scenes at Ubisoft and around the world whenValhallacame out. Ubisoft sent out ane-mail to its teams to remind them of the global pandemic and how it changed the gaming landscapefor a time (viaIGN). It’s something that everyone should remember when looking at sales figures, but it sheds new light on theAC Shadowscomparisons to previousAssassin’s Creedgames.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Was Released During ‘The Perfect Storm’
Hopefully, This Will Never Happen Again
The launch ofAssassin’s Creed Valhallain 2020 coincided with a lot of unprecedented circumstances. The game had its sales figures impacted thanks to these circumstances, but that kind of thing couldn’t happen toShadows. This unique combination of factors, described in an e-mail acquired by IGN to Ubisoft employees as"the perfect storm," created an environment unlike any other in the video game industry. The primary driver of these factors was the COVID-19 pandemic.
Don’t Stop Playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Yet
Although Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is almost two years old, Ubisoft hasn’t finished with the game. They’ve promised a final chapter to Eivor’s story.
Global lockdowns forced billions worldwide to remain at home, leading to a dramatic surge in video game consumption. With traditional entertainment avenues like movie theaters or outside recreation being shuttered and social gatherings restricted, video games were a crucial outlet. This resulted ina massive player engagement increase across all platforms and helped games released at the time. It’s what causes so many to question thesuccess of games likeAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, which was also released during lockdown.
It was a perfect storm we may never see again. That’s why it’s more meaningful to compare Shadows to entries likeOrigins,Odyssey, andMirage—games released in more typical cylces. - Ubisoft e-mail
Valhallaalso benefited from the arrival of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, the new generation of consoles at the time. The launch of these powerful new consoles generated a lot of hype for games that were made for them, likeValhalla.Valhallawas a cross-generation title available on both older and newer consoles, so it was well-positioned to capitalize on the excitement. Those who wanted to see the improved graphics could do so onValhalla, a flagship game of Ubisoft.
The combination of widespread lockdowns and the introduction of next-gen consoles created a unique position forValhalla.Shadowscould never benefit from the same situationValhallahad with the global lockdown, so it’s not fair to make any assumptions aboutShadows’sales by comparing it toValhalla. Ubisoft knew thatShadowswould need to be compared to other games that were released under normal circumstances.
Ubisoft Still Considers AC Shadows A Huge Success
AC Shadows Is The New Gold Standard
Ubisoft has publicly declaredAssassin’s Creed Shadowsa significant success; it’s thebiggest launch in the franchise. ConsideringValhallawas released during a “perfect storm” situation,this is a huge boost toShadowsand shows that it is doing well, and will likely end up profitable soon. It’s hard to stop a game when it’s selling so well, and Ubisoft clearly sees that this is a success.
TheAssassin’s CreedX account announced that within just a few hours of its release,Shadowssurpassed one million players across all platforms. This excitement from Ubisoft can also be seen at the end of the e-mail sent internally, which said that when compared to games released in typical cycles,Shadowsis “setting a new bar.” This is likely exactly what Ubisoft wanted from the release of the game, and it gives the company a much-needed boost.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows' Reported Sales Success Is Not Enough To Save Ubisoft
While Assassin’s Creed Shadows is proving to be a necessary win for Ubisoft, it may not be enough to save the company from its bevy of issues.
9metersreported that it cost Ubisoft $250 million to $350 million to makeAssassin’s Creed Shadows;and that is not counting any marketing or other factors. Ubisoft only makes 70% of the gross profit as Steam, Sony, and Microsoft take 30% of sales made on the games for the platforms. This leaves Ubisoft with $49 in gross profit per game.Ubisoft needs to sell 5.1 to 7.1 million copies to break even with those numbers, but it is likely to be reached by the company.
Valhalla Couldn’t Keep Players According To The Achievements
Valhalla’s Success Likely Isn’t From Good Gameplay
Another good reason not to compareAssassin’s Creed ShadowstoValhallais the poor reception of the latter. ReviewsValhalla’sSteampageare mixed, and it’s not hard to find players who don’t like the game.Our review ofValhallais pretty positive, yet I personally am not a fan of the game, but I do likeShadows. So it’s hard to work from an individual’s opinion, but Ubisoft does have other ways to see how players receivedValhallathat we can see.
While we can go with our opinion, it’s better to find hard evidence from theValhallastatistics. Looking at theValhallaSteam Achievementspage shows thatalmost 78% of players never got the “To England” achievement.True Achievementsshows 26% of players did not get this achievement for Xbox. That achievement is given after completing the prologue because that puts you in England. That means a significant number of players who boughtValhallanever got past the prologue.
That is a huge early attrition rate, and yet the game somehow sold incredibly well, reaching $1 billion, becoming thehighest-earningAssassin’s Creedto date. It would be a bad idea to compareShadowstoValhallawhenthere were clearly reasons outside of gameplay that contributed to the sales. TheShadowsSteam Achievementpage shows that 87.7% of players have finished the prologue, showing thatShadowshas a much higher retention rate.
Shadows Is The New Bar, Despite Valhalla Selling more Copies
Shadows Didn’t Need Luck To Succeed
Ubisoft’s internal correspondence aboutAssassin’s Creed Shadowsdeliberately avoided direct comparison to its 2020 predecessor,Valhalla. When looking at the many reasons whyValhallabenefited from releasing when it did, it’s easy to see why Ubisoft didn’t want to compare the two games. It would be like expecting the same perfect storm to happen during every release. Luckily,Ubisoft made sure its employees knew that Shadows was “the new bar.”
The decision to establishShadowsas the new benchmark is a proactive approach to future game development.Shadowsreleased when any other game could and faced the situations that future games will.The game succeeded without any help from special circumstances, and it deserves to be seen as the golden standard moving forward.
Now that there are realistic, sustainable goals for the franchise, Ubisoft can work on the next game with the same vigor.Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis setting the next game up particularly well, and Ubisoft can likely use this boost to make an even more successful game as long as it’s good and can meet the high standard that has been set.
