Digital Foundry interviews the developers of Assassin's Creed Shadows, discussing the major upgrades made to its Anvil Engine.
The PlayStation 5 was once again the best-selling console in the US in March 2025 in terms of units sold and dollar sales, according to figures from Circana (formerly The NPD Group). Circana includes the dates for the five-week period of March 2 to April 5.
Not surprised by PS5 dominance. It will be interesting to see if sales for ACS drop off the cliff or gradually slide down. UBI would want a gradual slide over many months while staying in top 10 for next 3-6 months.
Assassins Shadows is a success whether some people like it or not. They did try their hardest. But in the end facts are facts (not that those matter to some these days). Im just enjoying the crow eating at this point.
It’s not that we want games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows to fail—most of us love gaming and want to see great titles succeed. But when big publishers consistently make anti-consumer decisions, it's important for the community to speak up. If we don't push back, we risk normalizing practices that hurt us as players in the long run.
A lot of people point to the hype around upcoming releases like the Switch 2 and say, “Where’s all the negativity now? It’s already sold out.” But launch-day sellouts don’t tell the whole story. Historically, every new console sells well at launch. The real question is how it performs over time, especially if concerning trends continue.
Look at what Nintendo is doing: they’re charging $90 for a remaster bundled with DLC—content that many would expect to be priced far lower. Meanwhile, Xbox just released Oblivion, nearly remade and packed with all its DLC, for $50. That’s almost half the price for significantly more value. So should we just sit back and accept Nintendo charging almost double, or is it fair to question this pricing strategy?
It’s not just one game—it’s a pattern. Nintendo has been making several anti-consumer moves: physical editions costing more than digital, while also raising the price of digital games. And this isn't happening in isolation. For years, the standard price for a new game was $60. That held steady for over 15 years. Then it jumped to $70. Now, just four years later, we’re seeing $80–$90 price tags depending on the edition, platform, and whether it’s digital or physical.
These things add up. The industry is slowly training consumers to accept higher prices and fewer benefits, and when we don't speak out, we're essentially giving them permission to continue. This isn’t about hating companies or wanting products to fail—it’s about holding the industry accountable so it stays healthy, fair, and respectful of its audience.
We all want to enjoy great games, but we should also care about how they’re made, priced, and delivered. If we don’t ask questions now, we might not like the answers the industry gives us later
"Digital SKUs for March accounted for 70 percent of Xbox Series X|S sales and 50 percent of PlayStation 5 sales. Digital SKUs year-to-date have accounted for 75 percent of Xbox Series X|S sales and 50 percent of PlayStation 5 sales."
Okay this is interesting.
I see a lot of people talking about the 50% digital rate on PS5 but, that needs to be subtracted by the number of disc drives they sell. Also the fact that 15-20 percent of all PS5's are Pro's which are digital only by default so that 50% is heavily skewed.
In truth the vast majority of PS5's have a disc drive attached to them.
It's similar to the discussion about digital sales, where when you look at the total digital on PS5 seems high because so many games release digital only, but when you look at games that have physical releases the split on those games is still 50-60+ percent physical.
The majority of PlayStation owners still want physical games.
50% of a game that sells 2 million is still more then 75% that sell 1million. So, it really doesn’t mean much if you don’t know the approximate numbers
Lexreborn2
What is even the point you're trying to make?
Factually as we have seen reported by Sony and other publishers that games that have disc versions still sell 50-60 percent of the total copies physically on PlayStation, the number of total units sold is irrelevant when talking about the percent of individual products.
I wonder if oblivion remastered numbers for april will trounce the sales numbers of assassins creed origins? Hopefully it shows developers what gamers really want in a game. They don’t have to be perfect. They just need to have an identity or a soul. Easiest way to put it, is they need to be fun and entertaining. If it means remastering a 20 year old game to prove that, then so be it
VGChartz's Stephen LaGioia: "For my money, Shadows could have been better served stripping away or limiting a few more peripheral gimmicks (e.g. the Hideout and Kuji-Kiri meditations), while adding more combat abilities and nuance, which are a bit thin here. The game mixes in a slurry of elements that both work and don’t quite work from Valhalla, Mirage, and Odyssey, while sprinkling in a few new things that don’t really land as a whole (like scouts used for map details and resources, which need to be replenished). The result is a game that shines brightly in terms of presentation, as well as some combat and progression elements, but overall feels like a “jack of all trades” and a Samurai master of none."
TNS: This year's second-biggest hit seems ready to back Switch 2, as Assassin's Creed Shadows listing for the console was spotted on the wild.
I am lucky enough to have a great TV and the game looks amazing on my PS5 Pro. I have lost count of how many times I have found myself just walking through towns taking in the sights and atmosphere. Such an atmospheric game, even more so than Tsushima in my opinion, whilst Tsushima was a better game, the towns are so much bigger and better in Shadows.
It´s truly amazing to see that Ubisoft is one of the few publishers which possess a true current gen engine that can can go head to head with UE5.
AC Shadows looks phenomenal!