The highly-anticipated next Assassin’s Creed game will now launch on 20th March. Previously the game was set to arrive on 14th February, after its initial delay from November 2024.

Ubisoft said today that it was currently “taking decisive steps” to reshape the company and had now appointed advisors to “review and pursue various transformational strategic and capitalistic options to extract the best value for stakeholders”. In plain English, it sounds like Ubisoft is indeed investigating options for a sale, as suggested by several reports late last year. In December, news agency Reuters reported that Ubisoft was discussing buyout options with Chinese giant Tencent, already a major shareholder, that would take the company private.

Going forward, Ubisoft expects to it will “continue to drive significant cost reductions, together with a highly selective approach to investments”. The suggestion seems to be of a continued narrowing of the company’s focus, teams and output.

Ubisoft’s statement notes the recently-confirmed end of shooter XDefiant in December, and the subsequent closure of three studios “in high-cost geographies”.

“We learned a lot, of course, from this journey,” Ubisoft said in a conference call this evening attended by Eurogamer, discussing the end of XDefiant, “but we believe it was the difficult but right decision”.

In terms of investments, Ubisoft’s statement points to the additional five weeks given to Assassin’s Creed Shadows, whose developers will now have more time to incorporate additional changes.

“This additional time will allow the team to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months and help create the best conditions for launch by continuing to engage closely with the increasingly positive Assassin’s Creed community,” Ubisoft said.

During this evening’s call, Ubisoft added that it would begin giving some players access to Shadows next week, though the suggestion here was this referred to limited hands-on oppurtunities granted to select individuals.

Ubisoft additionally said it has suffered “lower than expected holiday sales, mainly for Star Wars Outlaws” and had also lowered financial expectations due to the discontinuation of XDefiant.

“We made good progress on the strategic and execution reviews initiated a few months ago and are confident that this will position Ubisoft for a stronger future,” Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot said in a statement. "We have taken decisive steps to reshape the Group in order to deliver best-in-class player experiences, enhance operational efficiency and maximise value creation. We also recently appointed leading advisors and are actively exploring various strategic and capitalistic options to unlock the full value potential of our assets. We are convinced that there are several potential paths to generate value from Ubisoft’s assets and franchises.

“Additionally, we are all behind our teams’ efforts to create the most ambitious Assassin’s Creed opus of the franchise and made the decision to provide an extra month of development to Shadows in order to better incorporate the player feedback gathered over the past three months that will enable us to fully deliver on the potential of the game and finish the year on a strong note.”

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a pivotal project for Ubisoft. It is the company’s biggest blockbuster in development and its most-anticipated release since 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Its launch also heralds a new era for Assassin’s Creed as a core focus for the company, with other projects of various shapes and sizes set to follow on an annual basis, all tied together via a new software hub.

But its road to release has not been easy, something that recently prompted the franchise’s boss Marc-Alexis Coté to issue an impassioned defence of the project and its many staff.

“We only have one shot,” Coté said of Ubisoft’s decision to delay Assassin’s Creed Shadows for the first time. "Ubisoft’s portfolio has faced criticism in recent years for a perceived inconsistency in quality. "Players expect more polish, more innovation and deeper engagement from the games we release, and they’re not shy about letting us know when they feel we have fallen short. This environment pushes us to do better and to be better.

“Assassin’s Creed Shadows represents our opportunity to change that narrative, not just for Assassin’s Creed, but I think for Ubisoft as a whole.”