Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to be the huge success that Ubisoft wanted the game to be. Yet, the company has been quick to dispell any comparison to the release of Valhalla, the last open-world game in the series. Ubisoft sees different circumstances behind the release of both games, and acknowledges that in sales.

There was a lot going on behind the scenes at Ubisoft and around the world when Valhalla came out. Ubisoft sent out an e-mail to its teams to remind them of the global pandemic and how it changed the gaming landscape for a time (via IGN). It's something that everyone should when looking at sales figures, but it sheds new light on the AC Shadows comparisons to previous Assassin's Creed games.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Was Released During 'The Perfect Storm'

Hopefully, This Will Never Happen Again

The launch of Assassin's Creed Valhalla in 2020 coincided with a lot of unprecedented circumstances. The game had its sales figures impacted thanks to these circumstances, but that kind of thing couldn't happen to Shadows. This unique combination of factors, described in an e-mail acquired by IGN to Ubisoft employees as "the perfect storm," created an environment unlike any other in the video game industry. The primary driver of these factors was the COVID-19 pandemic.

Global lockdowns forced billions worldwide to remain at home, leading to a dramatic surge in video game consumption. With traditional entertainment avenues like movie theaters or outside recreation being shuttered and social gatherings restricted, video games were a crucial outlet. This resulted in a massive player engagement increase across all platforms and helped games released at the time. It's what causes so many to question the success of games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which was also released during lockdown.

It was a perfect storm we may never see again. That's why it's more meaningful to compare Shadows to entries like Origins, Odyssey, and Mirage—games released in more typical cylces. - Ubisoft e-mail

Valhalla also benefited from the arrival of the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, the new generation of consoles at the time. The launch of these powerful new consoles generated a lot of hype for games that were made for them, like Valhalla. Valhalla was a cross-generation title available on both older and newer consoles, so it was well-positioned to capitalize on the excitement. Those who wanted to see the improved graphics could do so on Valhalla, a flagship game of Ubisoft.

The combination of widespread lockdowns and the introduction of next-gen consoles created a unique position for Valhalla. Shadows could never benefit from the same situation Valhalla had with the global lockdown, so it's not fair to make any assumptions about Shadows' sales by comparing it to Valhalla. Ubisoft knew that Shadows would need to be compared to other games that were released under normal circumstances.

Ubisoft Still Considers AC Shadows A Huge Success

AC Shadows Is The New Gold Standard

Ubisoft has publicly declared Assassin's Creed Shadows a significant success; it's the biggest launch in the franchise. Considering Valhalla was released during a "perfect storm" situation, this is a huge boost to Shadows and shows that it is doing well, and will likely end up profitable soon. It's hard to stop a game when it's selling so well, and Ubisoft clearly sees that this is a success.

The Assassin's Creed X announced that within just a few hours of its release, Shadows sured one million players across all platforms. This excitement from Ubisoft can also be seen at the end of the e-mail sent internally, which said that when compared to games released in typical cycles, Shadows is "setting a new bar." This is likely exactly what Ubisoft wanted from the release of the game, and it gives the company a much-needed boost.

9meters reported that it cost Ubisoft $250 million to $350 million to make Assassin's Creed Shadows; and that is not counting any marketing or other factors. Ubisoft only makes 70% of the gross profit as Steam, Sony, and Microsoft take 30% of sales made on the games for the platforms. This leaves Ubisoft with $49 in gross profit per game. Ubisoft needs to sell 5.1 to 7.1 million copies to break even with those numbers, but it is likely to be reached by the company.

Valhalla Couldn't Keep Players According To The Achievements

Valhalla's Success Likely Isn't From Good Gameplay

Another good reason not to compare Assassin's Creed Shadows to Valhalla is the poor reception of the latter. Reviews Valhalla's Our review of Valhalla is pretty positive, yet I personally am not a fan of the game, but I do like Shadows. So it's hard to work from an individual's opinion, but Ubisoft does have other ways to see how players received Valhalla that we can see.

While we can go with our opinion, it's better to find hard evidence from the Valhalla statistics. Looking at the Valhalla Steam Achievements page shows that almost 78% of players never got the "To England" achievement. True Achievements shows 26% of players did not get this achievement for Xbox. That achievement is given after completing the prologue because that puts you in England. That means a significant number of players who bought Valhalla never got past the prologue.

That is a huge early attrition rate, and yet the game somehow sold incredibly well, reaching $1 billion, becoming the highest-earning Assassin's Creed to date. It would be a bad idea to compare Shadows to Valhalla when there were clearly reasons outside of gameplay that contributed to the sales. The Shadows Steam Achievement page shows that 87.7% of players have finished the prologue, showing that Shadows has a much higher retention rate.

Shadows Is The New Bar, Despite Valhalla Selling more Copies

Shadows Didn't Need Luck To Succeed

Ubisoft's internal correspondence about Assassin's Creed Shadows deliberately avoided direct comparison to its 2020 predecessor, Valhalla. When looking at the many reasons why Valhalla benefited from releasing when it did, it's easy to see why Ubisoft didn't want to compare the two games. It would be like expecting the same perfect storm to happen during every release. Luckily, Ubisoft made sure its employees knew that Shadows was "the new bar."

The decision to establish Shadows as the new benchmark is a proactive approach to future game development. Shadows released when any other game could and faced the situations that future games will. The game succeeded without any help from special circumstances, and it deserves to be seen as the golden standard moving forward.

Now that there are realistic, sustainable goals for the franchise, Ubisoft can work on the next game with the same vigor. Assassin's Creed Shadows is setting the next game up particularly well, and Ubisoft can likely use this boost to make an even more successful game as long as it's good and can meet the high standard that has been set.

Source: IGN, Assassin's Creed/X, 9meters, Valhalla Steam page, Valhalla Steam Achievements, True Achievements, AC Shadows Steam Achievement