While there have been rumours surrounding a post-launch update for Assassin’s Creed Shadows that brings a co-op multiplayer mode to the game, things have been largely quiet for some time now. However, data miners have found files that indicate that there might indeed be a multiplayer mode for Assassin’s Creed Shadows in the works.
Social media platform X user Totocko97 has spotted a few mentions of multiplayer in the latest bootstrap file for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. According to their post, the file has mentions of developer test maps for multiplayer, as well as mentions of a PvP game mode.
Ubisoft, for its part, has been largely quiet about this. When it comes to post-launch support for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the company is working on the Claws of Awaji expansion for the game, which will bring in a host of new content, including gear, abilities and skills, when it comes out later this year.
Rumours about a co-op mode for Assassin’s Creed Shadows started coming out well before the game’s release. A report from back in October indicated that the co-op mode was not the source of the several delays seen by the game. Rather, the multiplayer mode is said to have been in development “long before” the delay was announced.
Considering the dual protagonists of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it can be easy to surmise that a co-op mode would feature both protagonists as playable characters. It would be interesting to see how missions for this mode are designed, however, as both Naoe and Yasuke offer different styles of gameplay, with Naoe focusing more on stealth while Yasuke is more focused on raw combat.
Mentions of the PvP mode are also noteworthy, since we haven’t seen an Assassin’s Creed game with PvP since Black Flag. A PvP mode was first introduced all the way back in 2010’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – the third mainline entry in the franchise – and it pit several assassins against each other in multiplayer maps.
When it comes to co-op, Assassin’s Creed has largely stayed away from the concept aside from a few attempts in games like Unity. Since then, however, Ubisoft has largely focused on offering single-player experiences. With the release of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the focus was shifted over to offering a live-service experience, while still hanging on to the core single-player gameplay.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was released on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on March 20. The game has been met with a generally positive reception. On launch, Assassin’s Creed Shadows already racked up a high player count, with more than 3 million players in a little over a week. For more details about the game, check out our review.
If you’ve already finished the game, check out how the studio is trying to figure out ways to bring harder difficulty options to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Also check out 10 things you can do after rolling the game’s credits. And here are our thoughts on why Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been exploding in popularity.
