Even Assassin's Creed: Mirage outsold it in three months. The game was an important bet for Ubisoft, but the Japanese setting, which fans had been waiting for, could not save the project.
Despite a strong start, Shadows reached three million players in its first week, but after 6 months, sales were only 4.3 million. This is a low result considering the invested budget and development time. For comparison, Mirage sold 5 million copies in 3 months, and the previous trilogy also sold better.
The reasons for the failure are clear: the game was released incomplete, many features were missing at the start, and disputes and inaccuracies in the depiction of feudal Japan worsened PR. Shadows' budget was estimated at $116 million, but today even 10 million sales are a common benchmark for AAA projects.
After the failure, Ubisoft and Tencent created a new division, Vantage Studios, which will take over the management of major franchises, including Assassin’s Creed.
Post-release content adds new mechanics and missions, but most of it feels like it was cut from the original version.
