Assassin's Creed Shadows drops promises early access for the big collector's Edition, but it's going to be $50 less than planned

Ubisoft confirmed that the Assassin's Creed Shadows Collector's Edition, a huge package that includes a 16" statue, an art book, a wall scroll and other goodies, will not include early access for three days to the game.

GameStop still lists the Collector's Edition (but it is not available for preorder). The Collector's Edition includes the base game, season pass and various high-quality collectibles.

Ubisoft hinted at the end of early access in September when it announced that Assassin's Creed Shadows would be delayed until February 14, 2025. It said that "all players can enjoy the game simultaneously." Ubisoft's community manager UbiRealDude confirmed on the official Assassins Creed Discord, that "there's no early access anymore for AC Shadows." It will be released on February 14 at the same time that the standard edition.

The price of the collector's version will be reduced to $230, instead of $280, which was the original price. This is a significant reduction for what I consider a relatively small loss.

Ubi-RealDude stated that the digital content of the Assassin's Créed Shadows CE will "mostly remain as originally advertised, although certain design elements may change." In an updated image of the CE, you can see some of the changes: The season pass is gone (Ubisoft announced in the Assassin's Creed Shadows announcement that they were also "departing" from the traditional season-pass model), as well as the mention of a Red Dragon photo filter.

Below you can compare the original CE images with the updated CE images:

When the Assassin's creed shadows delay was announced, there was speculation that Ubisoft might use the time to reduce or remove the prominence of Yasuke, due to the backlash from some over-excited gaming fandoms who object to the presence of a Black person in a feudal Japan game. Roddrex, a Discord moderator, responded to an inquiry regarding the status of characters after the announcement of CE changes. He said that it is not going to happen and that it is absurd to think it would.

They wrote: "Yasuke will not be removed from the game. He is already in it." "There is not enough time to implement the necessary changes to remove him, and it makes no sense to do so."

As someone who has bought a lot of collector's editions, I'm confident that the loss of early access won't matter much to the majority of people who buy them: You buy them for the swagand the sweet big box, and not so you can have three days of playing time with no one to discuss it with. (And we aren't mourning the end of a marketing strategy that Ted lost patience with last year.

Ubisoft still needs Assassin's Creed Shadows be a success. Ubisoft has struggled in recent years due to delayed games and poor results (it even failed to meet expectations with a high-budget Star Wars title). Now, things are coming to a head. After putting its faith in the Epic Games Store for several years, Ubisoft now wants to return to Steam. A possible buyout, which could see the company go private, is also in the works.