For the first time since 2019.
Image credit: Ubisoft
Ubisoft has announced a full return to Steam, with all its new releases set to launch day one on Valve’s storefront starting with Assassin’s Creed Shadows on 14th February next year.
Assassin’ Creed: Shadows will be the first Ubisoft game to get a day one release on Steam since Starlink: Battle for Atlas all the way back in April 2019. Since then, the publisher has opted to launch its PC titles on its own storefront and the Epic Games Store.
In fact, for a long time, new Ubisoft titles weren’t available on Steam at all, but that changed in December 2022, when Assassin’s Creed Valhalla made the jump to Valve’s platform – some two years after its initial release. Anno 1800 and Roller Champions followed, and the experiment was seemingly a success; in the years since, the majority of new Ubisoft titles have been released on Steam, albeit trailing other digital stores by several months at least.
Now, though, as part of its Assassin’s Creed Shadows delay announcement, the publisher has confirmed a change of strategy for its PC titles, revealing Shadow’s 14th February launch will “mark the return of our new releases on Steam Day 1”.
The news follows a challenging few years for Ubisoft, which officially adopted a strategy of “increased cautiousness” in 2023 amid disappointing financial results – an announcement that preceded numerous cancellations, job cuts, and delays. The last year has also seen Ubisoft’s share price drop by over 50 percent to a near 10-year low, with a recent report by Reuters blaming poor sales of Star Wars Outlaws and lack of interest in free-to-play shooter XDefiant cited as key reasons for the slump.
