The Nintendo Switch 2 has been a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to 3rd party titles. While some ports have gone above and beyond, others are barely even matching the visual quality of generations-old hardware. One publisher which has shown strong support for the Switch 2 so far is Ubisoft – with the company now fully detailing all the optimisations made for the upcoming port of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

The recent release of 2013’s Tomb Raider reboot on the Nintendo Switch 2 has been met with some controversy, with the tech analysts at Digital Foundry confirming that aside from a locked 60fps, the Switch 2 version of the decade-old game in some ways is inferior to the original release on PS3.

Whether it be as a direct result of this revelation, or simply good timing, Ubisoft have now published a blog post detailing all of the work which they have put in to make the upcoming Switch 2 version of Assassin’s Creed Shadows as close as possible to their PS5/Series X|S counter parts, writing:

“Behind the scenes, bringing such a large and detailed open world – originally developed for current-gen home consoles – to Switch 2 required one of Ubisoft's most ambitious technical undertakings to date. The result is a seamless, high-fidelity experience, whether you're playing in handheld or docked mode.”

Going into specifics, Ubisoft confirmed that the Switch 2 version of Shadows will retain many of the home console features, including “the same cloud and cloth simulation systems,” a slightly lower quality “solid baked Global Illumination” (similar to the Series S version) as well as DLSS – allowing for “a sharper image, with more accurate colors, improved textures, and fewer visual anomalies” while maintaining their target of 30fps.

Of course, there will be a bunch of various nips and tucks made in order to optimise the experience (such as slight adjustments to LODs, draw distance; texture resolution NPC counts and more), but overall it seems as though Ubisoft went through the game with a fine-toothed comb in order to ensure Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like a comparable experience on Nintendo’s latest handheld. It will be interesting to get a more in-depth comparison when the game launches on Switch 2 in early December.

KitGuru says: What do you think of Ubisoft’s support for Switch 2 so far? Are they the best 3rd party dev in this regard? Let us know down below.

Ubisoft games typically offer a similar level of post-launch support across the board, with a majority of their titles including a Season Pass with a couple expansions alongside smaller content updates. While the team already shared their year one roadmap for Assassin’s Creed Shadows promising that there will be more to come, it appears as though plans for a year-two expansion have now been cancelled.

In an interview with the RPG-focused YouTuber JorRaptor (transcribed by IGN), Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois confirmed that September’s Claws of Awaji expansion will be the only one of its kind for AC: Shadows, stating: “As of now, at this moment for Year Two, there is no expansion on the size of Awaji that is planned.”

Explaining this decision, Comtois continued, “We're still working on content for post-launch and supporting it, but it's not a full-on DLC the way a season pass would have had in the previous years,” adding that “we're trying to re-adjust for Year Two a little bit. There's learning from Year One we can apply to Year Two. Any content we want to do in Year Two will probably be more sparse, not a drip-feed… but chunkier updates that shake things up a little more. I'm not announcing anything at this point but our strategy for Year One was to be quick and reactive, so it means smaller drops often, but for Year Two we don't need to put fires out or anything, so it's more what good, chunky little piece of meat… we can drop and have people come back and enjoy it.”

Additional comments on their post-launch mentality with AC: Shadows can be found HERE, including discussions surrounding the game’s engine, dev time and more.

The strategy taken with Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been rather different when compared to other AC entries. Be it due to low pre-orders, series fatigue or whatever other reason, Ubisoft made major alterations to their Season Pass plans, announcing prior to the game’s release that they would be making the aforementioned Claws of Awaji expansion free for all those who pre-ordered.

Whether this is the primary reason for their change in post-release plans is unknown, but it will be interesting to see what this means for year two of Assassin’s Creed Shadows – and whether breaking away from the formula will wind up working in their favour.

KitGuru says: What do you think of AC: Shadows’ post-launch so far? Do you enjoy the typical Season Pass model of prior Assassin’s Creed titles? Let us know down below.

Ubisoft announced that Title Update 1.1.6 for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will come out later today and shared its full patch notes. So, let’s see what this new update brings to the table. Patch 1.1.6 adds a new story quest, called “A Puzzlement”. In this quest, Naoe and Yasuke encounter two old acquaintances having a loud … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Update 1.1.6 Releases Today – Full Patch Notes →

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