Assassin's Creed Shadows Thankfully Won't Have A Common But Controversial Gaming Feature

Summary Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows won't require constant internet connection, unlike other modern games.

The offline mode for Assassin's Creed Shadows allows players to experience the full story without being online.

Concerns about mandatory internet connections in games reflect ongoing debates about access and ownership.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is thankfully avoiding a controversial gaming feature that has become more prominent in recent years. While Ubisoft initially revealed its Japan-set title back in 2022 under the working title "Codename Red", it recently revealed more about the next entry in its long-running franchise, introducing its dual protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe, and their story in a new cinematic trailer, alongside a release date of November 15, 2024.

Despite not showing any gameplay footage, the cinematic trailer was accompanied by the announcement that players could pre-order the title, with an additional quest Thrown to the Dogs to entice people to do so. As with most major Ubisoft releases, Assassin's Creed Shadows will also have several special editions with varying bonuses, and those who pre-order any of these will be granted 3 days of early access to the game.

The Ultimate Edition of Assassin's Creed Shadows will also be available at launch on PC as part of Ubisoft's subscription service, Ubisoft+.

Related Assassin's Creed Shadows Trailer Reveals New Protagonists & Japan Setting Assassin's Creed Shadows' cinematic trailer revealed its two new protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe, and some of their story in Feudal Japan.

Ubisoft Confirmed Assassin's Creed Shadows Will Be Playable Offline

But An Initial Internet Connection Is Required To Install The Game

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Following these announcements, the official Assassin's Creed X account responded to some concerns raised within the gaming community surrounding whether Assassin's Creed Shadows will have online dependencies or if it will be available offline. Fortunately, ​the entirety of the game's story will be playable offline, but only after an initial install.

This works in a similar way to other recent Ubisoft titles, such as last year's Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Star Wars Outlaws, which will be released a few months before Assassin's Creed Shadows and features an "internet required to install the game" warning, even for the physical edition. While the Assassin's Creed team simply mentioned needing to be online to install the game without further explanation, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora needed a mandatory day-one patch, so it's possible this could be standard practice for Ubisoft titles.

Day-one patches are nothing new in the gaming space, with most AAA titles needing one to patch various bugs or add improvements made by the developers after a title has "gone Gold", reaching the point where it is deemed to be finished and ready for release. Usually, it's at this point that a master copy is made for physical discs to be made from as well, and in the days up until the PS3 and Xbox 360 era when internet connectivity became a larger part of console gaming, it was widely acknowledged that the game on the disc would be the same complete version the players would ultimately play.

Unfortunately, since then there have been many complaints that many titles have "gone gold" in broken and unfinished states, with accusations that developers tend to over-rely on the ability to patch titles later as a way to get around this, meaning that the version on the disc is far from the version developers intended players to experience. While most consoles are now connected to the internet and automatically install these patches, this doesn't pose too much of a problem, and Ubisoft making its day-one patches compulsory before players even boot up the game for the first time is simply a way to make sure players are on the most up-to-date version and get the experience its creatives intended.

Related Every Assassin's Creed Game, Ranked Worst to Best Since 2007, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed video game series has released twelve mainline titles. Here are all 12 games, ranked from worst to best.

Too Many Modern Games Need A Mandatory Internet Connection At All Times

Regardless Of Whether They're Single-Player or Multiplayer Titles

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While Assassin's Creed Shadows is a single-player title and therefore won't need the online functionality of a multiplayer title, the fan concern that Ubisoft addressed is extremely valid in the current gaming age, as more titles have been implementing features that require an internet connection regardless of how many players are accessing it. Ubisoft has been no stranger to this with titles such as Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which was entirely online regardless of whether players played the game solo with AI teammates (which were added well after its launch) or online with friends.

Developers have argued that the need for their titles to be constantly online can range from security purposes to keeping the game constantly updated, with other titles using this internet connection to combat piracy. The problem is that in doing so, these developers immediately reduce the lifespan of their games, as servers will inevitably shut down, rendering them useless. This happened with Ubisoft's racing title, The Crew, which originally had single-player content that could be played "offline". Unfortunately, when The Crew's servers were shut down in March 2024, the entire game became unplayable, regardless of whether it was single-player or multiplayer content that was being accessed.

YouTuber whammy4 shared a video in which they seemingly found an in-built offline mode for The Crew, accessible via a specialized boot menu, suggesting that Ubisoft could have found a way to let players continue playing the game. Unfortunately, this mode is inaccessible to the public due to Digital rights management (DRM).

Earlier this year Ubisoft's director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, suggested that gamers need to get used to not owning their games in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. While this was in relation to getting them to sign up to subscription-based services like Ubisoft+, it seems like companies that implement "always online" functionality in their titles have a similar thought process.

While this may not be seen as much of an issue in free-to-play titles - provided players haven't spent too much on microtransactions - the price of AAA titles has increased significantly over the years, to the point where Assassin's Creed Shadows' standard edition is $69.99, but its special editions can cost $109.99, $129.99 or even $279.99 for the Collector's Edition, which is a lot of money for a title that could become redundant a few years after its launch. Therefore, so long as the ability to install the patch needed to run the title upon its initial launch remains in place, it's promising that the upcoming game does have an offline mode.

Source: Assassin's Creed/X, whammy4/YouTube, GamesIndustry.biz