Assassin’s Creed Shadows pretty much needs to be a big success for Ubisoft, which is a company that has seen its fair share of struggles in recent years. High-profile failures like XDefiant, disappointing sales for games like Star Wars Outlaws, and mass layoffs across multiple studios have all contributed to the narrative that Ubisoft is currently up the creek without a paddle.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has the potential to turn its fortunes around though, and despite all the backlash surrounding Yasuke and two separate delays, it’s apparently on course to perform very well. First reported by Eurogamer, Ubisoft claimed in its most recent quarterly earnings call that pre-order sales are currently “solid”.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Pre-Order Sales Are Just As Good As Odyssey’s

Exact pre-order numbers were never revealed, but Ubisoft gives us an idea as to just how well Assassin’s Creed Shadows is performing before launch by claiming the title is “in line with those of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey”, which is the second most successful game in the series.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is currently the most successful entry in the series, and it sounds as though that title isn’t really under threat from Shadows.

Of course, just because a game’s pre-order sales are high, doesn’t automatically mean it will sell like hotcakes. Dragon Age: The Veilguard was one of Steam’s most-pre-ordered games during the very busy October of last year, yet it eventually went on to disappoint EA massively, underperforming in terms of players by a whopping 50 percent.

These numbers coming from Ubisoft itself should be a little bit more reliable though, and if Assassin’s Creed Shadows does become the second most successful game in the series behind Valhalla, then it will give the company a major boost. It can then use that to either push on and gain momentum, or as a bargaining chip in buyout talks with Tencent, which were reportedly put on hold recently.