Assassin’s Creed Shadows abandons traditional  Season Pass model

Ubisoft has confirmed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will forego its usual Season Pass model.

In a statement from a document about Ubisoft’s financial targets for the 2024-2025 fiscal year, the company noted its decision to abandon the typical Season Pass model, amongst other interesting changes with how Ubisoft usually releases titles.

This news hit the same day it was revealed that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would be delayed to February 14, 2025. The developer claimed it was to “further polish the title,” granting it three extra months to work iron out the kinks.

Season Passes weren’t just available for recent games in the beloved Assassin’s Creed franchise but for other Ubisoft titles, as well. Essentially, purchasing a Season Pass would allow you to buy all the Season’s rewards and future DLC packs.

Ubisoft

“All players will be able to enjoy the game at the same time on February 14 and those who preorder the game will be granted the first expansion for free,” the statement read.

So not only will Shadows abandon Season Passes, but it will also give the first DLC expansion for free to anyone who decides to preorder the game. In addition, Shadows won’t grant early access to players who buy pricier versions of the game.

Another huge change Ubisoft will be implementing, as written at the end of the document, is the return of day-one releases for new titles on Steam. This marks a departure from the publisher’s usual strategy of releasing games on PC exclusively via Ubisoft Connect.

Ubisoft is making big adjustments for future games after looking back at previous launches. “[T]he learnings from the Star Wars Outlaws release led us to provide additional time,” the statement said in part.

This big news also came just a day after Ubisoft Japan announced it would be pulling out of Tokyo Game Show 2024 mere days before the event.