Assassins’ creed shadows

Assassins’ creed shadows was released March 20th 2025, it is an action-adventure game in which players follow the story of either Naoe a shinobi assassin or Yasuke the samurai, as they navigate the turbulent clan wars of Sengoku-era Japan.

What makes the game unique is it’s dual-protagonist structure, non-linear approach to missions and the Feudal Japan setting.

Assassins creed shadows cost around $250 million to develop until January, not accounting for another one month delay to March, with high-end budget speculations, placing it at $350 million.

It was developed by Ubisoft Quebec. One of the directors is Jonathan Dumont, known for directing and writing for other titles in the Assassins creed franchise, like Odyssey, Legacy of the First Blade, The Fate of Atlantis. He has also worked on the Immortals Fenyx Rising franchise as writer and story creator.

In 2020 allegations surfaced that Dumont verbally abused and made sexual advances toward his co-workers, especially targeting women and newly hired employees.

These allegations were part of the many thrown at Ubisoft in the past couple years, which even warranted a Singapore watchdog to open a probe into its Singapore office over the claims made of sexual harassment and racial discrimination, leading to top executives leaving the company.

The allegation against Jason also claims that his tendency for outbursts, was responsible for the exodus of talented employees from the company as he had caused a ‘climate of fear known for years’. It further detailed that he would throw things, punch walls and call employees names until they would cry. However allegedly he has made an effort to improve himself since the allegations surfaced in 2020. This however has not stopped many employees from being reluctant to work on Assassins creed shadows with Jason as the creative lead.

Charles Benoit served as the other director having previously worked as an associate game director for Immortals Fenyx Rising. He has been heavily criticised for his decisions during the production of the game, largely for the large number of historical inaccuracies present when representing Japan.

Karl Onnee served as producer, having also previously worked as associate producer for Immortals Fenyx Rising. He doubled down on the Game’s Commitment to being as authentic as possible, despite petitions reaching hundreds of thousands of signatures from Japanese audiences as they called for the game to be discontinued for its’s historical inaccuracies and distortion of history.

The writer for the game Ryan Galletta had previously written for the Need for Speed games Carbon and Most Wanted, as well as Batman: Arkham Origins.

Assassins creed Shadows setting reflects a modern push for stories set in foreign cultures, as well as a push for ethnic diversity in its cast.

The many brand collaborations made leading up to the games release can help make apparent who the intended audience are for this project. For example, the Lexip hardware collaboration brought feudal Japan inspired gaming equipment, showing an appeal for die-hard gaming fans, as well as those who approach cultural histories.

A Madrinas Coffee partnership introduced character inspired boba teas. Boba is mainly purchased and consumed by young adults 20-29 however it is also particularly popular amongst younger demographics, such as Gen Z and students. Young female consumers between 10 to 20 years old are also a significant driving force in the market.

The dual apparel strategy prior to launch of partnering simultaneously with combat sprots brand Venum for performance wear, as well as trendy streetwear label Anti-Social Social Club for a limited fashion capsule, helped tap in to both athletic consumers and fashion-forward audiences.

The game received positive reviews from Game Rant, VICE, Game Informer and IGN giving it a 8/10, praising its story as well as its stealth and combat. Metacritic gives it a METASCORE of Generally Favourable with an average of 81 based on 92 critic reviews, however the USER SCORE is Mixed or Average based on 3,422 User Ratings.

Assassins creed shadows had an all-time peak of 64825 concurrent players, which is the highest peak of all Assassins creed games on steam, surpassing Odyssey which had 62k players however it has failed to crack Steam’s top 20. The game passed 2 million players 2 days after it released, however this includes those using Ubisoft’s own subscription service, which allows access to their games, meaning actual sales numbers are lower. On the other hand, it was the Best-Selling Game in the U.S. for March and the Second Best-Selling Game of 2025 So Far, with a significant part of the game’s revenue coming from day one sales on steam, Fortnite was number one.

The game has had a steady decrease in players, with it sitting at just under 9,000 players currently. 80.67% of steam reviews are positive, with 15,735 positive reviews and 3,770 negative reviews.

I believe the demographic is likely aged 18-28, as the game is an 18-age rating, this also lines up with the collaborations, especially the boba. I also believe the game is part of a push for a more ‘diverse’ audience, including a black protagonist in addition to the Japanese setting, one of the playable protagonists is also female, appealing to a female audience, the game also features gay romance, appealing to gay gamers. In terms of psychographic profile, it is for people who are already considered gamers, advertising its combat, stealth and open world exploration features. It also tries to appeal to those who are fans of historical settings and aesthetics. A large portion of the fans of this game are long time fans of the assassin creed franchise as well as avid defenders of Ubisoft as a game studio. The game may also appeal to more general gamers, for its RPG elements, straying away from the franchises action platforming roots.

Curran and Seaton may recognise Ubisoft as an independent company, however may define it more as a conglomerate due to it's size, making it an outlier or exception to their theory as it is a socially diverse pattern of ownership, however it acts the same as a media conglomerate, due to it being driven by profit and power. They would argue that making a sequel to a game franchise with over 20 games, shows for one, that they are driven by profit, because they are fulfilling a market they know exist, due to the franchises large pre-established fanbase, who will buy the game based off the presumption that it is good, like previous games in the franchise. They would also argues that this is an example of creativity being limited, as they would argue that instead of making new games or experiences, which would diversify the options of games available for people to play, they are instead reproducing the same formula again with making sequels. However you could argue that Assassins creed shadows takes a risk by having the central character of the first game set in Japan be African, a risk which is more likely to be taken by smaller companies who appeal to niche markets and risk which caused much controversy however this decision wasn't the sole factor for the games failure as many cited poor gameplay, other historical inaccuracies and bad writing for why they didn't like the game. On the other hand Curran and Seaton may have argued that the inclusion of this character only shows examples of mainstream dominant ideologies as many other game studios have increased the diversity of their representations as well. However Curran and Seaton may also argue that the rejection of the game, shows that the ideology isn't mainstream.

An application of Sonia Livingstone and Peter Lunt's theory, would be the game being classified as a PEGI 18. 18 rated games can contain very strong violence, or elements of explicit sex and drug misuse. Assassins creed shadows is said to contain criminal techniques, mild sex and nudity, mild depictions of drugs and alcohol, severe violence and gore on top of frightening or intense scenes. Since the BBFC isn't generally used for game ratings anymore

the game has not been rated by them, games still rated by the BBFC tend to contain strong pornographic material.

Stuart Hall would argue that the game appeals to the Struggler as the historical settings and action gameplay allow for escapism, as they offer for experiences not available in real life, it will also appeal to the resigned as many people who play the games now are long times fans of the franchise how have certain expectations of what the games should be like

Leon Hagan