The Assassin's Creed Shadows Collector's Edition will no longer offer early access to the game, with the edition's price dropping $50 as a result.
In a post on Discord (via IGN), Ubisoft confirmed that several factors, including the Assassin's Creed Shadows delay, the cancellation of its planned Season Pass component, and the removal of the three days of early access planned as part of its original November 15 release date, caused the $280 price tag to drop to $230.
While "the content will mostly remain as initially advertised [...] some design elements may change," Ubisoft confirms. Buyers of the Collector's Edition are still set to receive the game itself, alongside multiple art pieces, collector's items, and a statue of the game's protagonists.
The Assassin's Creed Shadows delay was accompanied by the unofficial suggestion that the early access window had been removed from the Collector's Edition. While the original release date was split between November 12 for early adopters and November 15 for everyone else, the new release date seemed locked to a single day, February 14, 2025. It's taken a while for Ubisoft to confirm that would be the case, but there's now little doubt as to what day you'll be able to play Shadows.
It's been a rocky few weeks for Ubisoft. Assassin's Creed Shadows' delay was fueled in no small part by the mediocre response to Star Wars Outlaws, a failure that the company says it's learning from in its decision here. These recent fumbles, however, have sent share prices tumbling, prompting an official response to rumors that CEO Yves Guillemot was looking for buyout options. In the meantime, Ubisoft says that the delay is part of a desire to "make sure execution is flawless" on Assassin's Creed Shadows, which it's described as "the most ambitious entry in the franchise."
