Assassin's Creed Shadows is "pushing the limits" of what Ubisoft can do with current-gen consoles.
In a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Assassin's Creed Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée spoke about development of the new RPG. "It's great to work on a game that comes after something with the pedigree of Valhalla," explains Onnée, referencing 2020's sprawling action RPG epic Assassin's Creed Valhalla, the biggest game in Ubisoft's series to date.
"But obviously there are great expectations. We always want to go better, which is what we're trying to do with Shadows. We are pushing the limits of what we can do. It is something we have always wanted to do, but we wanted to find the right time. And I'm sure the other teams would have liked to do it, too," the lead producer continued.
Assassin's Creed Shadows is made by Ubisoft Quebec, the same team behind 2018's Assassin's Creed Odyssey, the last mainline title preceding Valhalla. Onnée believes Odyssey gave Ubisoft Quebec the "experience" necessary to make Assassin's Creed Shadows.
"But it also felt like the right moment, because we have the power in terms of the hardware, but also our new version of the engine, so we could really deliver our vision. It was important for us to have things like light and shadows, which is very performance hungry. And things like dynamic weathers," Onnée concludes, referencing Ubisoft's upgraded Anvil game engine, which Shadows runs on.
Shadows is the first Assassin's Creed game to run exclusively on the PS5 and Xbox Series X, ditching last-gen consoles entirely. Assassin's Creed Valhalla straddled the gap between console generations because it launched alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X in late 2020, but that's not the case with Shadows.
Assassin's Creed Shadows launches later this year on November 15. Read our very own Assassin's Creed Shadows preview for a deep dive into Ubisoft's new game, and a talk with key developers behind the title.
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