Over the weekend, videos of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which is still nearly a month out from release, began circulating online. The captured gameplay was the result of physical copies of the game being sold online well ahead of release.

Now, in response to leaks of gameplay and story elements, Ubisoft has issued a statement. Specifically, the company acknowledged the presence of leaks, while stating that patches are being worked on to improve the game ahead of launch.

pic.twitter.com/Ignd2JZVpS — Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) February 24, 2025

As such, “any footage shared online does not represent the final quality of the game.”

How We Got Here

As mentioned up top, physical copies of the game began circulating on the secondhand market, with one leaker claiming they got their copy of the game off Facebook Marketplace.

Three additional copies of the game were sold on Mercari for $100 each. Flash forward to today, and not only has the listing vanished, but so has the seller. Typically speaking, sold listings remain on the site, as do its sellers, unless they are banned or have their account deleted. It’s unclear what camp those listings fall under.

What This Means Going Forward

To this point, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed not once but twice, going from November 2024 to finally settling for March of this year. Following the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft elected to push back Shadows in an effort to avoid another disappointment. In other words, a lot is riding on this title.

Ahead of its March launch, it was reported that the preorder numbers were largely in line with Odyssey, the second-most successful game in the franchise. Of course, leaks of any kind are detrimental, and while Ubisoft has ensured that whatever is being shared won’t represent the final game’s quality due to in-the-works patches, not much else can be done for things from a story element. Should those leaks continue to filter out, then there’s no telling how damaging it could be for a game whose success is seemingly tied to Ubisoft’s long-term future.