- Online marketplaces are said to have been selling copies of Assassin’s Creed Shadows less than a month ahead of release.
- In addition, clips of the game have been leaked online prompting Ubisoft to state these clips aren’t indicative of the current version of the game.
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows arrives amid a flurry of controversy on 20th March.
Ubisoft’s next Assassin’s Creed game, Shadows, was set to be released last year, and then this month but the developer reckoned the game needed a bit more time in the oven and delayed the launch to 20th March.
It appears as if Ubisoft has sprung a leak as PC Gamer reports that hard copies of Assassin’s Creed Shadows are being sold on Facebook Marketplace. This has lead to clips from the game landing on digital platforms but Ubisoft has swiftly removed most clips.
The Assassin’s Creed developer took to X to do some damage control. The company says that the clips being shared were from an old build of the game and as such aren’t indicative of the version that will arrive in late March. You’ll recall that the developer delayed the launch of the game to round out its edges and insure the game wasn’t as poorly received as Star Wars Outlaws was.
“Leaks are unfortunate and can diminish the excitement for players. We kindly ask you not to spoil the experience for others. Thank you to our community for already taking steps to protect everyone from spoilers,” wrote Ubisoft.
— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) February 24, 2025
As such, you may want to avoid any media posted to social media about the game in the foreseeable future. Some reviewers have already had a chance to play through a chunk of the game and word on the street is that Shadows may especially impress fans of Black Flag.
It’s not clear how these copies of the game have leaked but some have suggested this is a supply chain issue and physical copies of the title were stolen before being sold on.
Despite an Assassin’s Creed game based in feudal Japan being the top request from players for years, a small subsection of Gamers™ have waged a war against Ubisoft for choosing a Black Samurai as one of its main protagonists and is so doing failed at being historically accurate. We’ll remind those folks that in the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, you could travel to Valhalla. We don’t recall seeing that in our history textbooks.
The news of a leak is surely going to be bad for Ubisoft, especially with the discourse surrounding this game being as volatile as it has been. The build seen in the leak, despite Ubisoft’s warning, is being treated as the final version and this could impact sales for a company that really can’t afford another flop.
Frankly we’re surprised that Ubisoft hasn’t said it plans to move the release up but we suspect it has a whole release and press plan in place that it can’t change without causing chaos. Thankfully 20th March is just around the corner.
