Game development can be stressful, I’m sure you’ve heard. The director of fighting game series Tekken yesterday shared an anecdote about how wild that stress can get. Speaking about the release of Tekken 4 in 2001, director Katsuhiro Harada remembered it didn’t perform as well as previous games. And the game’s relatively weak reception (alongside a lack of support at Bandai Namco) sent his body into a spiral of ill-health from anxiety.
“I was under so much stress at the time that I developed a mysterious condition where all the hair on the right side of my body fell out – just the right side,” said the director in a post on Xitter. “Even the hair on my arms, eyebrows, and eyelashes disappeared.”
So, the video game world is watching Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ early performance closely for signs of its success — or failure. So far, Ubisoft has yet to announce a sales figure, but has said Assassin’s Creed Shadows hit 2 million players just two days after launch, surpassing the launches of both Origins and Odyssey.
There’s also a lot of attention on Shadows’ Steam concurrents, which are being compared to those of other triple-A single-player games that recently released, as well as previous Assassin’s Creed games on Valve’s platform.
Shadows became the most-played Assassin’s Creed game ever on Steam over the weekend with 64,825 peak concurrent players, although it’s worth noting that it was the first game in the series to launch day-one there. BioWare’s single-player RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard saw a peak of 89,418 players on Valve’s platform.
It’s hard to make a call on whether Shadows is below, meeting, or exceeding Ubisoft’s expectations without knowing what those expectations were. But a source from within Ubisoft, who revealed an internal email reviewed by IGN, has helped us better understand the game’s first weekend performance.
Here’s what we’ve found out: Shadows delivered the second-highest day-one sales revenue in the franchise’s history, behind only 2020’s Valhalla, which launched across the last and current generation of consoles and benefited from stay-at-home gaming fueled by the pandemic.
Shadows also marked Ubisoft’s best ever day-one launch on the PlayStation Store, suggesting particular success on PS5.
But what about PC, given Shadows launched on Steam as well as Ubisoft’s own digital store? According to Ubisoft’s internal communication, 27% of Shadows’ total “activations” were on PC. Ubisoft is telling employees that Steam “played a major role” in Shadows’ performance on PC, without revealing exact sell-through numbers. It says early results “are a strong validation of our decision to return to the platform.”
Generally, Ubisoft is talking up player engagement, which is at “record levels,” and “feedback across moderated, verified platforms — those less affected by review bombing — remains incredibly positive.” Shadows was also the most-wishlisted Ubisoft game of all time, and it’s doing better than any other Assassin’s Creed game on Twitch, even Valhalla.
It’s here that Ubisoft’s internal communication provides context on comparisons between Shadows’ launch and other games in the franchise. What’s clear is that Shadows is not doing as well as Valhalla did at launch, but Ubisoft is saying it’s not fair to compare the two, because Valhalla benefitted from the “perfect storm” of pandemic-fueled stay-at-home gaming and the launch of the Xbox Series X and S and PlayStation 5 in 2020.
“Valhalla launched under extraordinary conditions — in the middle of a global pandemic, with widespread lockdowns and brand-new console hardware,” the internal communication reads. “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 pointed out that Shadows released in March. Historically, Assassin’s Creed games launch just ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving window, which typically boosts sales. Meanwhile, Ubisoft ditched the early access period it normally charges extra for with its games. It’s also worth noting that Ubisoft’s own subscription offering is now available directly on Xbox, which affects sales on Microsoft’s console and muddies sales comparisons.
Money talks, of course, and irrespective of player numbers and engagement, it will be revenue brought in by Assassin’s Creed Shadows that determines the fate of not just the game, but Ubisoft itself. We may not get a clear picture of that until Ubisoft’s next financial report in the coming months.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Amazon’s Spring Sale is back, and upon first inspection, it’s not looking like a vintage year. There are some discounts on quality PC gear, but a deals collapse has left them buried under forty thousand tonnes of overcomplicated toothbrushes and collagen peptide powders. So, so many collage peptide powders. I didn’t know there was this much collagen on Earth.
It’s still my job – it is still my job, right? Okay just checking – to dig through the Paltrow-adjacent junk and yank out the good stuff, so let’s start small with a few quid/bucks off one of my favourite Steam Deck docks. The JSAUX 6-in-1 Multifunctional Docking Station may have a clumsy name but it’s a keen bit of accessory design, with the port-adorned central block (which acts as a stand in docked mode) able to detach and pull double duties as a portable USB-C hub. It’s perfect for Steam Deck/Asus ROG Ally/Lenovo Legion Go/Zotac Zone etc. owners who want to keep employing that extra connectivity when taking their handheld away from home, and the Spring Sale has chipped the already-aggressive price down to £38 / $31.
Last month, Nintendo announced it would be discontinuing the My Nintendo Gold Points program, with it no longer possible to earn these points after a certain date.
In case you missed this, Nintendo has issued a reminder on social media ahead of the big day next week on 24th March 2025 (or 25th March depending on your location). While you’ll no longer be able to receive Gold Points from purchases, there will still be other ways to earn points:
In February, Nintendo revealed Game Vouchers would not extend to the Switch 2 game exclusives in an official notice on its website. Now, in an update, Nintendo has gone to the extent of reuploading its YouTube game voucher trailer with fine print specifying the same thing.
“Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers cannot be redeemed for games exclusive to Nintendo Switch 2 and may not be combined with any other sale, discount, or promtional offer unless otherwise specified.”
Listen to some of Kirby and the Forgotten Land today.
Nintendo has been regularly updating its Nintendo Music app with different soundtracks but this week it’s slightly different
Following the addition of multiple albums last week, today we’re getting just part of an album. It’s 23 tracks from the recent Switch title Kirby and the Forgotten Land – with the rest of the game’s songs scheduled to arrive on the app “later this year”.
You see that mountain on the horizon? You can go there! That old gaming chestnut has been around for a very long time now, but for old-school gamers who remember the compartmentalised kingdoms of yore, there’s a special magic still to be derived from being able to trek your way to a distant summit in modern open worlds. Video games, eh? Marvellous.
Paradox have announced that 4X space strategy game Stellaris‘s next major overhaul will launch on 5th May, alongside the game’s BioGenesis DLC pack. The latter adds living spaceships together with new civics, traits and megastructures, but I’m more interested in the 4.0 update, which they’re branding the “phoenix update” in that it aims to overhaul performance problems caused by the 4X game’s update-bloated systems, while making “guidance and pacing” changes with new players in mind.
It doesn’t sound nearly as exciting on the surface as living spaceships, I’ll grant you, but this is a 4X game, don’t forget – the mythological firebird is in the detail.
♫ Stabbing a man. Stabbing a man. Sometimes in Greece. Sometimes in Japan. Stabbing a man. Sometimes in a meadow. Here is our verdict on Assassin’s Creed Shadows ♫
Nic: To kick off this verdict, I have no choice but to ask my most insightful question: how Assassin-y is this Assassin’s Creed Game?
Jeremy: This is the first AssCreed game I’ve engaged with since Assassin’s Creed II, which I watched my roommate play through in university. So my opinion is not especially scientific, but from what I’ve seen it is very Assassin-y. The story – which is serviceable if not anything original – revolves around tackling a group of masked bad guys known as the Onryo (that’s Japanese for ghost), who are introduced with cool chanbara-style music. You’ve got to kill all of them, and sometimes you have to kill other folks who are connected with them, and in general there is a whole lot of assassinating going on, either with Naoe (who slices and dices with the standard hidden blade) or Yasuke (who has a ‘brutal’ assassination where he shoves his katana into someone’s face).
♫ Stabbing a man. Stabbing a man. Sometimes in Greece. Sometimes in Japan. Stabbing a man. Sometimes in a meadow. Here is our verdict on