Assassin's Creed Shadows has been the one bright spot in Ubisoft's troubled times over the last couple of years. Even though it wasn't able to contend with Ghost of Yotei on PlayStation consoles, the company's recent first-half year results report noted that Shadows overperformed overall. Despite that, however, and despite the fact that Ubisoft's original plan was to put out multiple expansions for Shadows, it now seems like Claws of Awaji, which was released in September, will be the last - and only - DLC expansion the game receives.
Spotted by IGN, in an interview with YouTuber JorRaptor, associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois confirmed that, at least right now, Ubisoft is not planning to do another expansion for Shadows that is on the same scale as Claws of Awaji.
"Well, we live in a murky world these days. So, with the caveat that anything can happen in the future, cause as [Assassin's Creed] Mirage just proved and as the crossover stories from [Assassin's Creed] Odyssey to [Assassin's Creed] Valhalla before it, things could come up in the future," Lemay-Comtois began.
"But as of now, at this moment, for Year 2, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned, currently. We're still working on content for post-launch and supporting it, but it's not a full-on DLC the way a season pass would have had in previous years. And whether or not this is the right way to go or a good learning, I think it's more of an experience we're trying with Shadows, to keep it small and reactive, to see how the community feels about it and react to it. The learnings that come out of that will be applied to whatever other projects we do next."
Lemay-Comtois continued to explain that for Year One, the team's approach was to try and be as reactive as possible, but with Year Two, the team can slow down as it's not "putting out fires" anymore, and really decide what solid "chunks of meat" they can release for Shadows.
Listening to Lemay-Comtois, it sounds clear that Ubisoft shifted in its plans for Shadows. Though, as Lemay-Comtois points out, anything can still happen, it seems like the chances of another proper DLC expansion for Shadows are slim to none, and Slim is getting ready to leave town.
This directional change could also be due to the completion of Ubisoft's deal with Tencent and the finalization of Vantage Studios. Now that the Assassin's Creed franchise is under the new subsidiary, it could be the case that everything about how the franchise is carried forward is getting some sort of re-evaluation, including the future of Assassin's Creed Shadows.
For more on Claws of Awaji, you can check out Francesco De Meo's review of the expansion.
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