Assassin’s Creed Shadows took the longest to make in franchise at four years, Ubisoft says it’s “the right balance”
Four years is the “right balance to go from conception to production”
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
WhenAssassin’s Creed Shadowslaunches later this year, its development cycle would have been longer than any game in the series at four years, and Ubisoft thinks that’s the perfect amount of time to make a game.
Speaking withGamesIndustry.biz, lead producer Karl Onnée explained that Shadows took longer to make thanAssassin’s Creed Valhalla’sthree years, because the team wanted to create an accurate depiction of feudal Japan and make the game “as authentic as possible”.
“It’s great to work on a game that comes after something with the pedigree of Valhalla,” Onnée said. “But obviously there are great expectations. We always want to go better, which is what we’re trying to do with Shadows. We are pushing the limits of what we can do.”
The developer continued, saying that in order to make good on this promise, the team had to take its time.
“It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate,” he said. “Yes, you can put more people on a project and do it in shorter time, but that doesn’t give you more time to iterate, because it takes time to get feedback from your players, your team… and then see what works and what doesn’t and how to improve it. Four years, I think, is the right balance to go from conception to production and get the feedback necessary to adapt.”
On makingShadowsan “authentic” experience, Onnée explained that it was something the team took “pride” in and that it was a “very long process”.
“When we build a Japanese house from feudal Japan, it is very different from, say, a French medieval house or an English one,” the developer said. “So you have to learn as artists where things go inside a feudal Japanese house… maybe the food doesn’t go there. You have to get everything you need to know and learn it. And that process is long.
Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.
Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.
Onnée added, “It’s not feudal Japan, obviously, but it is good to go on site, because it is only then that we realize it is very different to what we think it is. It is very interesting, because when the team went there, one of the things that jumped out was the forests and how they are. We had made some forests based on the Greece landscape [for Odyssey], but when we went, we noticed it was very different to what we’d done, and we had to change it. You don’t necessarily find that stuff out when doing historical research.
“These are some of the small things that are very important, because you get a better sense of the dimensions of the building, of the culture, of monuments and shrines that are still standing today… it is important to represent all that correctly.”
Assassin’s Creed Shadowslaunches on November 15 forPlayStation 5,Xbox Series X|S,Amazon Luna, and PC.
You might also like…
NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Sunday, November 10 (game #518)
Herman Miller Aeron gaming chair review: premium, highly customizable comfort
Phishing attacks surge in 2024 as cybercriminals adopt AI tools and multi-channel tactics
