Ubisoft has pushed the Steam release button earlier because Star Wars Outlaws' sales were "softer than expected."

Ubisoft's decision to delay Assassin's Creed Shadows until next year is a result of "softer than expected sales" of its last major open-world game, Star Wars Outlaws.

Ubisoft today told investors that "While [Assassin's creed Shadows] was feature complete, we learned from the Star Wars Outlaws launch and provided additional time to further refine the title."

Ubisoft's dev teams have stated that they are "currently fully mobilize to implement a series updates to polish and enhance the player experience to engage a wide audience during the holiday period to position Star Wars Outlaws to be a strong performer over the long-term." (Another way to say we can expect some patches for quality-of-life)

Ubisoft has also announced that Outlaws is coming to Steam on 21 November. It also stated that it will no longer do timed Epic exclusivities on PC. This deal, which it has had with Fortnite developer Epic since 2019, is over. Steam will be the first place to get Assassin's creed shadows when it releases early next year.

Star Wars Outlaws has been praised by many, including in our Star Wars Outlaws Review. Outlaws was not what he expected. He was expecting to be disappointed by both the Disney era Star Wars as well as today's open-world Ubisoft formula. But he was pleasantly surprised.

I don't think delaying Assassin's Creed Shadows as a result of Outlaws not meeting its sales target was the right thing to do. If Star Wars Outlaws, a good open-world Star Wars game, didn't sell the way Ubisoft had hoped, I don't think "additional polishing time" would have changed that. Maybe some people are just over this type of game. If the delay makes Shadows an even better game, then I won't complain. Steam is a welcome addition.