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As development times spiral, Assassin's Creed Shadow lead producer says that 4 years is the perfect amount of time to bring a game from conception to completion
Despite Assassin's Creed Shadows having the longest development time of any mainline entry, Ubisoft claims four years is still the optimal time frame to ensure quality and player feedback implementation.
Assassin's Creed Shadows may be the longest time Ubisoft has spent on developing a mainline entry for the series - and development times might be ballooning across the industry - but one lead developer says Ubisoft's timing is just about right.
Advancement in technology means going bigger and better is becoming an increasingly lengthy affair, and that throws up issues like cost. Speaking to GamesInudstry.Biz, lead producer Karl Onnée says even so, four years is "the right balance to go from conception to production and get the feedback necessary to adapt."
Onnée explains that you can put more people onto a project to get the game over the finish line quicker, though that'd likely be a mistake as you wouldn't get the time to iterate. Without time to implement feedback from the team and other players, you're less likely to release something of the quality you're shooting for. That, in part, is why Assassin's Creed Shadows has taken longer to put together than 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
"It's great to work on a game that comes after something with the pedigree of Valhalla," explains Onnée. "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."
The other side of the coin for Ubisoft, though, is authenticity. Japan isn't as familiar with the team as locales closer to home, so the team conducted internal research before working with external consultants and historians and visiting locations where the game takes place.
"We are trying to create a game that is as authentic as possible. It's something we take pride in," Onnée says. "And that is also a very long process. When we build a Japanese house from feudal Japan, it is very different from, say, a French medieval house or an English one. So you have to learn as artists where things go inside a feudal Japanese house… maybe the food doesn't go there. You have to get everything you need to know and learn it. And that process is long."
It's been a long road for Ubisoft, and it hasn't been without the odd bump. The developer recently apologized for promotional material that "caused concern within the Japanese community," saying the launch version of the RPG would represent something different. With the launch set for November 12, there's not long to wait and see.