Ubisoft has clarified that Assassin's Creed Shadows isn't getting a battle pass amid rumors that the Animus Hub, the rebranded Assassin's Creed Infinity set to house all future games in the franchise, will feature paid content.
The Animus Hub team posted on the Assassin's Creed Reddit to correct leaks claiming the hub would contain paid rewards for Assassin's Creed Shadows, leading many to believe a battle pass style system was being implemented.
"It has come to our attention that inaccurate rumors have been circulating online regarding the upcoming Animus Hub (ex-codename Infinity)," Ubisoft said. "We wanted to take this occasion to clarify that all the rewards available in the Animus Hub will be entirely free."
The post went on to clarify "there are no paid subscriptions or paid battle passes featured in the Animus Hub" and "players will have access to regular content and missions at no extra cost." More details will be revealed closer to the launch of Assassin's Creed Shadows, which was recently delayed from November to February 14.
Ubisoft is also ditching its main paid content model of releasing a Season Pass with two main, paid expansion drops in the year after launch. The faux "early access" period that sees publishers charge players more to play on the actual release date instead of three days later has also been scrapped.
Releasing myriad pieces of downloadable content for free will perhaps bring some Assassin's Creed fans back on-side in what's otherwise been a particularly rough pre-launch campaign for Ubisoft.
Issues began as some fans 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 despite art director Thierry Dansereau telling IGN that Ubisoft looked to make Shadows as "authentic as possible to match historical events" just two months prior.
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.
It will also begin a new modern day story, perhaps linked to the Animus Hub, as Ubisoft admitted it's "struggled to find its footing" with that aspects of Assassin's Creed in recent years.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
