As per the studio’s Q3 FY2025 financial report, which you can peruse here, Shadows’ Switch 2 debut has been a boost to its active player counts, as has the release of an insightful look into Basim’s past in Valley of Memories. With Shadows taking the franchise back to feudal Japan for some good, old-fashioned parkour and stealth, and with Naoe and Yasuke blending their distinct playstyles into the gameplay loop, it’s safe to say that the long wait for the Assassin’s Japanese story was well worth it.

CEO Yves Guillemot expressed satisfaction with the company’s performance last quarter, doubling down on the restructuring plans that have been at the center of a lot of discussion recently. “We delivered a solid third-quarter performance, with net bookings growing at a double-digit rate year-on-year, exceeding our expectations. This performance reflects the strength of our portfolio and the breadth of player engagement across our core franchises, supported by recent releases and live content updates that continue to resonate with players.”

Although Assassin’s Creed was named explicitly, the Switch 2 version of Shadows has been mentioned as a factor in the last quarter’s success. With the title being rather make-or-break for the studio after a string of mediocre releases, it’s indeed heartening to know that The Brotherhood has been able to bring it some much-needed good news.

Along with this, Ubisoft has also noted that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to reach an even wider audience thanks to the upcoming December 2 launch of the title on the Nintendo Switch 2. Aside from Shadows, the older games in the franchise have also seemingly performed quite well.

Sales and player numbers for Assassin’s Creed Shadows were helped by the fact that Ubisoft has continued to release free updates for the title, complete with new additions like the New Game+ mode. Along with this, Ubisoft has also credited the release of Claws of Awaji back in September as contributing to continued player interest in the game.

“[Assassin’s Creed] Shadows benefitted from the launch of the New Game+ mode, which was widely anticipated by the community and introduced greater difficulty and new challenges for players,” said the company in its earnings report. “The Claws of Awaji expansion released on September 16 and contributed to re-engaging players. It was praised as a solid addition to the base game, offering new unique boss fights in a beautiful and dark atmosphere. Looking ahead, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will reach a broader audience with its launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 on December 2.”

When it comes to the future, Ubisoft has great expectations from Assassin’s Creed Mirage picking up steam again thanks to its recently-released Valley of Memory update. The company noted that initial feedback has been quite positive, and has confirmed that the title managed to grow its “player activity” by double, and hitting the 10 million players mark.

The company has spoken quite positively about the performance of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, as well as The Division 2 and the Nintendo Switch 2 release of Star Wars Outlaws. However, it also noted that Rainbow Six Siege has seen a dip in player activity and spending. The company has attributed this to “a temporary surge in cheating”, and has confirmed that it has established a plan to tackle the issues that have been discovered.

In the same earnings report, Ubisoft CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot also spoke about the deal that the company had made with Tencent, which is valued at €1.16 billion. As part of this deal, Tencent will become a minority stakeholder in the recently-established subsidiary Vantage Studios, and the deal is set to close “in the coming days”.

“The transaction with Tencent is on track to close in the coming days,” wrote Ubisoft in its earnings report. “All conditions precedent have been satisfied. At closing, the €1.16bn investment will deleverage the Group. It will also enable the acceleration of Vantage Studios’ IP growth, support selected investment opportunities across the rest of the Group, and facilitate ongoing reorganization efforts.”

For more details about Assassin’s Creed Shadows – available on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S – check out our review. Also check out details about Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Valley of Memory update while you’re at it.

While you can check out the full list of changes in the patch notes below, some of the highlights include the addition of the Engineer 2 skill tree, the ability to dodge a Shakiriyya attack after being parried, increased window of opportunity to perform kicks, improved trigger condition of ejects, and a variety of UI enhancements.

Along with this, the update is also bringing in two new difficulty options – Hardened Assassin and Ultimate Assassin. As you might expect, the new difficulty options will offer more challenging gameplay. Completing a permadeath run on these difficulty options will also earn players a new reward.

Ubisoft has described the Hardened Assassin difficulty as sitting between Assassin (Normal) and Master Assassin (Hard) in terms the challenge offered. While general gameplay difficulty will be around the same as Assassin, enemies will have higher defense. Ultimate Assassin, on the other hand, will be the new hardest difficulty option. Along with these, Assassin’s Creed Mirage is also getting a new Custom Difficulty preset that gives players more ways to fine tune their experience.

However, the star of the update is the story content being added as part of the Valley of Memory update. The new narrative is set before the events of the Assassin’s Creed Mirage finale, and takes protagonist Basin to the new region of AlUla. The story revolves around Basim learning that his long-lost father might be alive somewhere in the new region, with him setting off to find out more. The region features a host of new points of interest, from the old town of AlUla and the Musa Ibn Msayr fortress to the Valley of Stones and necropolis of Hegra.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and iOS. For more details, check out our review of the base game.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage title update 1.1.0 patch notes:

New Content:

• New Story Content: Valley of Memory
• New Region: AlUla
• New World Activities

Full Game Improvements:

• Animus Sequences (Replayable Missions Feature)
• New Difficulty Settings: Hardened Assassin and Ultimate Assassin
• Tier 3 Tool Upgrades

Parkour and Controls Improvements:

• Free Jump
• Back and Side Ejects
• “Modern” Control Preset

Additional Improvements & Additions

Gameplay

• Added a new skill to the skill tree: Engineer 2 which allows players to equip all tool lvl1 upgrades.
• Added an option to cancel the chain kill once started.
• Added new objects that can only be looted by pickpocketing in AlUla.
• Rebalanced the notoriety system to coincide with new difficulty settings.
• Tool aim assist will now correctly snap to the target’s weak points while behind an enemy. Now you have no excuses…

Combat

• Added an opportunity to dodge a Shakiriyya attack after being parried.
• Modified the Light Attack slash VFX to make the attacks feel more impactful.
• Improved the flinch animation on the NPCs during light attacks.
• Increased the window of opportunity to perform a kick.
• Disabled blend on parry success animation so it feels more responsive.
• Increased the size of the parry VFX.

Parkour

• Improved the trigger condition of the ejects.
• Modified the camera and added a VFX to improve the feeling of speed while sprinting.

UI

• Added a button on the world map to fast travel between Baghdad and AlUla once the AlUla questline starts.
• Updated the objective icons design and descriptions within the quest log to reinforce the differences between the types of objectives.
• Removed the skill point notification remaining on screen when there are available skill points to rely on the “new” notification from skill tab.
• Added an “upgradable tool” icon when a tool can be upgraded. Displayed next to the Bureau icons, on the map & compass for Banu Musa and the Workbench.
• Reduced the size of the Ubisoft Connect notifications.
• Added a new tutorial panel and Codex entry explaining Defense tactics in combat.
• Made various adjustments to improve the Horse mount camera.

List of Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• All claimed rewards are now linked to the player account save. For instance: any reward claimed in Permadeath will now be accessible to all the saves on the player’s account.
• Modified how to access permadeath: it can now only be initiated when starting a New Game+, rather than at any time.
• Prevented players from falling on a specific ledge in Baghdad.

UI

• Resolved an issue where the Options menu would be offset after talking with a merchant with text size set to Large.
• Fixed an issue where the “Assassin’s Creed Franchise” button would lead to a page stating that there is no content available.
• Numbers in some item descriptions are no longer split when the text is displayed as Large in Japanese language.
• Fixed the localization of “Basim Valhalla Costume” in Traditional Chinese.

Visuals & Graphics

• Addressed an issue where the world would look dimmer with almost no highlights after turning on HDR.
• Fixed an issue where the Desync screen on PS5 Pro would display broken visuals.
• The draped golden fabric of the Dhahabi Master Assassin Costume now moves freely like other costumes.

Stability

• Fixed rare issues that could create crashes.

According to Ubisoft, the Valley of Memory update will add up to six hours of additional gameplay and story content to Assassin’s Creed Mirage, with its main narrative set before the events of the base game’s finale. The story for the update starts with Basim learning about his long-last father potentially still being alive in AlUla, and setting off on a journey to see if this is really true. Along the way, Basim will also learn about the dangers faced by the valley of AlUla, as well as the fact that his father, while alive, happens to be missing.

As you might have guessed, the entire region of AlUla is among the new content added to Assassin’s Creed Mirage, featuring its own points of interest, ranging from the old town of AlUla and the Musa Ibn Msayr fortress to the Valley of the Stones and the necropolis of Hegra.

The black box missions and contracts added to Assassin’s Creed Mirage through Valley of Memory will be replayable after having completed them once. These can be accessed through the “Animus Sequences” part of the objective board, as well as from directly in the game world. Replaying the missions will offer new challenges, encouraging creativity in how the player tackles them. These will come with their own in-game rewards.

Along with this, the parkour gameplay of Assassin’s Creed Mirage is also getting an upgrade, allowing players to manually jump to then seamlessly weave together parkour sequences that previously used to be impossible. There will also be a brand new control scheme that makes the parkour smoother, as well as the option to customise back and side ejects, which could previously only be done if Basim had access to a clear landing spot or handhold.

Basim’s skill tree is also getting expanded through a new skill dubbed Engineer 2. This skill allows Basim to equip all level 1 modifications to his tools, along with a new level 3 modification being available for each tool as well. Players looking for a higher degree of challenge can also check out the additional difficulty levels that can be used to further customise the gameplay experience.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage was originally released all the way back in October, 2023 on PC (via Epic Games Store and Ubisoft+), PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. The title would eventually make its way on to Steam for PC players on its first anniversary last October, before also eventually making its way on to iOS devices powered by Apple’s more recent chips.

For more details about Assassin’s Creed Mirage, check out our review.