Ubisoft has cut the price of the Japan-set Assassin's Creed Shadows' Collector's Edition by $50 in lieu of the cancelled Season Pass, scrapped early access plans, and the game's delay to 2025.
The developer confirmed the price drop in a Discord post, telling fans it would now cost $229.99 instead of $279.99 and no longer contain a handful of the bonuses originally announced.
Ubisoft was a leading publisher behind the recent trend of offering "early access" to its games, which many have said is simply about charging fans more money to play often single-player games on their actual release date, and forcing those who stick to the standard $70 edition to wait three extra days.
Ubisoft had already made clear this would no longer be on offer for Assassin's Creed Shadows, announcing a single February 14, 2025 release date following a delay to its original plan of releasing the game across two dates next month: November 12 and November 15.
But getting to play Assassin's Creed Shadows on its actual release date of November 12 was one benefit of the Collector's Edition and, alongside the also included Season Pass being scrapped, many fans who'd already committed to paying $279.99 wondered how that cost would be made up.
Finally, almost a month after Ubisoft announced the delay and other changes, the company has confirmed the price drop for the Collector's Edition. "The content will mostly remain as initially advertised, though some design elements may change," it said.
The Collector's Edition now includes the game, a statue of dual protagonists Naoe and Yasuke, an art book, a life sized replica of Naoe's katana tsuba, a world map, wall scroll, and two lithographs for the $229.99 price tag.
Ubisoft hasn't enjoyed the promotional campaign it perhaps hoped for after revealing Assassin's Creed Shadows, a franchise entry set in Feudal Japan that fans have requested for years.
Some expressed frustration with inaccuracies in the game's depiction of Japan, leading the development team to issue an apology and say the game is not intended to be a factual representation of history but instead "a compelling, historical fiction." This comes despite art director Thierry Dansereau telling IGN Ubisoft looked to make the game as "authentic as possible to match historical events" just two months prior.
It also emphasised its collaboration with external consultants and historians, but "despite these sustained efforts, we acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community," Ubisoft said. "For this, we sincerely apologize."
Concern was also raised when the developer used a flag from a Japanese historical re-enactment group in artwork for Assassin's Creed Shadows without permission. Ubisoft apologized for doing so but refused to remove the artwork from the aforementioned and presumably already printed artbook available in the Collector's Edition. The historical re-enactment group said this was not good enough, but Ubisoft hasn't publicly acknowledged it since.
Yet another controversy came as collectible figure maker PureArts removed an Assassin's Creed Shadows statue from sale over its "insensitive" design.
All this comes as fans are already frustrated by the delay to the game, which puts Assassin's Creed Shadows in more direct competition with PlayStation's Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Ghost of Yotei. This is also expected in 2025 and is another open-world action adventure game set in Feudal Japan.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot maintained confidence, however. "There's a lot of space for very high-quality games, and those two games can sell very well," he said in the company's latest earnings call. "The focus is to really make sure that we deliver a fantastic experience with this dual protagonist approach and two different and complimentary gameplays."
Assassins Creed Shadows indeed features two protagonists, stealthy assassin Naoe and savage samurai Yasuke. The game's story will weave between the two but players can otherwise switch between them at will as they explore Ubisoft's open-world take on Japan.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
