Assassin’s Creed Shadows Dev Team “Could Really Deliver on Our Vision” Thanks to Updated Engine

The wait for an Assassin’s Creed game set in feudal Japan has been a long one, but this year will finally see Ubisoft giving the people what they want with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Interestingly enough, however, according to its developers, limitations of previous hardware would not have been able to do justice to the setting, and it’s because of the advancements now available that Assassin’s Creed is finally visiting Japan.

Speaking with GamesIndustry about the same, lead producer Karl Onnée explained that Ubisoft was looking for “the right time” to do a Japanese setting in an Assassin’s Creed game, adding that the capabilities of current-gen hardware and the updated version of the Anvil engine that the game has been developed on allowed the development team to “really deliver on our vision”.

“It is something we have always wanted to do, but we wanted to find the right time. And I’m sure the other teams would have liked to do it, too,” Onnée said. “We had the opportunity because we had done Assassin’s Creed Odyssey [set in Greece], so we had the experience. But it also felt like the right moment, because we have the power in terms of the hardware, but also our new version of the engine, so we could really deliver our vision. It was important for us to have things like light and shadows, which is very performance hungry. And things like dynamic weathers.”

The dynamic seasons and lighting systems mentioned by Onnée have been front and center in a lot of what Ubisoft has shown of Assassin’s Creed Shadows so far, with their changes confirmed to dynamically impact the world in significant ways. In terms of size, the game is going to be similar to Assassin’s Creed Origins – which means we’re looking at a relatively smaller world compared to Odyssey and Valhalla – but in terms of complexity and density, it looks like Ubisoft has stepped things up- based on what Onnée says, at least.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is due out on November 15 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.