Assassin’s Creed Shadows Can’t Stop the Ubisoft Rot of Star Wars Outlaws and XDefiant

Assassin’s Creed Shadows may have ended up being a hit for Ubisoft, but the company’s financial report for the previous fiscal year shows it wasn’t nearly enough to make up for other losses.

This was a largely expected outcome amongst many onlookers (ourselves included), but the figures are still rather damning. The publisher made a net loss of €159 million, with revenues down 17.5% year-on-year.

Released in August 2024, Star Wars Outlaws seriously struggled for sales despite boasting a massive development budget and a lengthy, widespread marketing campaign. The title quickly became a significant factor in Ubisoft’s more recent decline, and set alarm bells ringing within the company, with shareholders eyeing potential buyouts.

Then you’ve got the likes of XDefiant, which launched in May of last year. The live service shooter barely got off the ground before rumours of its imminent demise began to spread. Around seven months later, Ubisoft confirmed that the game would be shut down in June of this year.

“This year has been a challenging one for Ubisoft, with mixed dynamics across our portfolio, amid intense industry competition,” CEO Yves Guillemot stated as part of the briefing.

Now more than ever, Ubisoft has no real choice but to bet big on its most popular brands. Assassin’s Creed is the obvious go-to solution, with the publisher supposedly planning around six years’ worth of games, ranging from more open world RPGs to full-on remakes. Shadows’ success will have no doubt brought some momentum to this strategy as well.