A rumor claims that Ubisoft is canceling their Assassin’s Creed Shadows press reviews hinting at a potential delay for the game. This all comes as Ubisoft announced it was pulling out of the Tokyo Game Show.

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

The official Ubisoft Japan account announced on X that it was pulling out of the Tokyo Game Show. A translation via X user Prairiefawkes states, “To our community members, Regarding our planned online participation in Tokyo Game Show 2024 scheduled for September 26th at 15:00, we regret to inform you that we had to cancel our exhibition due to various circumstances. We will continue to carry out the official streaming commemorative present campaign that is currently underway.”

The company added, “We apologize for this last-minute notice. To those who were looking forward to the stream, we express our heartfelt apologies.”

Ubisoft Japan on X

Following this announcement, Tom Henderson at Insider Gaming reported that “various sources” informed him that “the Assassin’s Creed Shadows press previews were scheduled to take place next week, and the embargo date for the previews would be announced then.”

Henderson then shared, “At the time of writing, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still scheduled to release on November 12, 2024, however, the recent announcements may suggest that the game might be delayed.

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

This rumor follows in the wake Assassin’s Creed Executive Producer Marc-Alexis Côté revealing what Ubisoft had planned for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

He told The New York Times, “We want people to be passionate about history. What does that mean? Stay true to well-documented moments and historical figures, but not shying away from having a critical point of view and defying clichés to go beyond what is the accepted truth.”

The New York Times’ writer Zachary Small added that this “approach would inevitably open Assassin’s Creed to more criticism in the future but that the developers have decided it was a risk worth taking.”

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

Côté previously attempted to deflect criticism of the game from Elon Musk who simply commented, “DEI kills art.”

 

He responded to Musk’s post in an interview with Game File telling the outlet, “That tweet generated emotions, that…the first thing I wanted to do was go back on X – that I had deleted – and just tweet back. And I just took a step back. I have a mindfulness app on my phone. And I did a bit of mindfulness to try to explore the emotions that this tweet created.”

He then accused Musk of feeling hatred while being the one to actually express hatred, “For me, Elon, it’s sad, he’s just feeding hatred. I had a lot of three word replies that came to mind.”

Nevertheless, Côté continued, “By attacking someone like Elon… I will not convince people about our point of view as a team.”

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

Côté then shared that he believes Ubisoft will convince players of his team’s point of view, which we now know is going “beyond what is the accepted truth” within the first 15 minutes of the game.

Côté said, “Yasuke is very, very grounded in the history of the franchise and how we make our choices. … We’ve got a super-mysterious historical character from which not much is known about. And for us, it was what we want in [Assassin’s Creed].”

He continued, “What Elon says is not the game that we’re building. People will have to play the game for themselves. And if, within the first 11 minutes and 47 seconds, they are not convinced of what we’re doing, we can have the discussion.”

Key art for Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

“I was reviewing the game very recently, and I was like, ‘The answer is there!’ I just hope and wish that people can keep an open mind about this and see the game for what it is,” he elaborated.

“It’s an Assassin’s Creed game, and I believe the best one we’ve ever built,” he declared.

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

Given this new rumor from Henderson it does not appear that Côté and the team at Ubisoft are as confident anymore as they were previously claiming.

What do you make of this rumor that Assassin’s Creed Shadows might get delayed?