Assassin's Creed Shadows drops promised early access for its big collector's edition, but it's also going to be $50 cheaper than planned
Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin's Creed Shadows collector's edition, a honkin' big package that comes complete with a 16-inch statue, art book, wall scroll, and other such good stuff, will not include three days of early access to the game.
The three-day early access period was included as one of the benefits of the collector's edition, which is still listed (but not actually available for preorder) on GameStop. "Play up to three days early with the Collector's Edition, which includes the base game, the season pass, and various high-quality collector's Items," it states.
Ubisoft alluded to the elimination of the early access period in September, when it announced the delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows to February 14, 2025, saying that "all players will be able to enjoy the game at the same time." It's now been confirmed by Ubisoft community manager Ubi-RealDude, who wrote on the official Assassin's Creed Discord that "there is no early access for AC Shadows anymore." It will instead be released at the same time as the standard edition on February 14.
To compensate for the loss of the early access period, the cost is being reduced: Instead of going for $280 as it was originally priced, the collector's edition will sell for $230—a pretty deep cut for what I would say is a relatively minor loss.
Ubi-RealDude said the digital contents of the Assassin's Creed Shadows CE "will mostly remain as initially advertised, although some design elements may change." At least some of those changes can be seen in an updated promo image for the CE they shared: A reference to the season pass is out (Ubisoft said in the Assassin's Creed Shadows delay announcement that it was also "departing from the traditional season pass model") as is mention of a "Red Dragon photo filter."
You can compare the original and updated CE images below:
There was some speculation when the Assassin's Creed Shadows delay was announced that Ubisoft would use the time to reduce the prominence of the Yasuke character, or remove him entirely, in response to backlash from certain over-excited quarters of gaming fandom who take issue with the presence of a Black man in a game set in feudal Japan. In response to an inquiry about the status of the characters following the announcement of the CE changes, Discord moderator Roddrex said it's not happening, and pointed out that it's a bit absurd to think that it would.
"Yasuke is in the game and he won't be removed," they wrote. "There's not enough time to make the necessary changes required to remove him and it doesn't make any sense in doing so too."
As someone who's sprung for more than a few collector's editions over the years, I feel reasonably confident in saying the loss of the early access period won't mean much to most people who buy these things: You get them for the swag and that sweet big box, not so you'll have three days of playtime with nobody to talk about it with. (And we're certainly not mourning the loss of a marketing tactic that Ted ran out of patience with last year.)
Regardless of that, Ubisoft needs Assassin's Creed Shadows to be a hit. The company's been struggling in recent years with delayed games and sub-par results (it even missed the mark with a big-budget Star Wars game) and things are starting to come to a head: After throwing in its lot with the Epic Games Store for a few years, Ubisoft is beating feet back to Steam, and a possible buyout that could see the company taken private is also reportedly in the works.