Assassin's Creed Valhalla has been a huge hit for Ubisoft. The open world Viking adventure released in November last year on both PS5 and PS4. Not long after, the French publisher announced that Valhalla had enjoyed the "largest launch" in series history. And earlier this week, Ubisoft confirmed that it had its best ever quarter in terms of financials — a huge turnover that was spearheaded by the success of Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
With all of this in mind, it makes sense for Ubisoft to go all-in on Valhalla — and apparently, that's exactly what it'll be doing. During its most recent earnings call, the company reiterated that post-launch support for the game is a priority, stating that Valhalla will "benefit from a stronger and longer post-launch programme" than Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
To recap, Odyssey's post-launch support was pretty stellar. It received two solid expansions (each split across three episodes), and a boatload of free content updates which added requested features, new quests, and more. By comparison, Valhalla has started off quite slow — but it's fair to assume that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on the developer's plans (as well as the game's general bugginess).
That said, February should be a big month for Valhalla. The game's 'River Raid' update is due out this month, bringing a whole new activity to the foggy shores of medieval England. A laundry list of bug fixes are also in the works, and at this point, we're partly expecting everything to drop at once.
Beyond that, the title's first expansion, 'Wrath of the Druids' is still on course to release this Spring. We should be hearing more about that soon.
In any case, if Valhalla does manage to outdo Odyssey's post-launch roadmap, fans should be in for a treat. As it stands, the Assassin's Creed community appears to be a little divided over the game's direction; there was a bit of an outcry recently regarding the title's questionable microtransaction store. Let's hope that these incoming updates patch things up.
[source ubisoft.com, via trueachievements.com]
Comments 27
I think this is the right approach. Get some decent expansions out while the other team starts the initial stages of developing the next instalment.
So no Assassin's Creed this year then. Maybe no new one next year either? There was a two year gap between Odyssey and Valhalla.
This is fine by me.
@nessisonett Totally agree, much prefer them committing to expanding and improving each game instead of pumping out a new Assassin's Creed every year.
I know not everyone was a huge fan of it, but Odyssey was an excellent open world game by the end of its post-launch support. Valhalla could get there as well (but it still needs quite a bit of work).
Stronger... 👍 Longer... 🙄
Good to know that I can wait even longer before buying it. I have waited for every Assassin's Creed game since Unity until all the expansions/DLCs were out, therefore getting the non-buggy, fully patched complete edition of each game on first playthrough, at a very heavily discounted price, and I have never regretted this decision.
To be fair, I do the same with any other game (especially AAA games). Is there really any point to buy these games at launch, or even close to launch (unless they are multiplayer focused, which is not my cup of tea)?
Not sure why people are so upset about the microtransactions... It's not like they throw advertisements at you, neither are these transactions mandatory to finish the game. I'm wearing the same armor since I started the game (Twitch Prime armor), so I personally really don't get it...
@Xenomorph_79 The annoying thing is, they could have avoided this situation if they hadn’t padded the game excessively with the same tedious/mundane tasks.
The number of people bothered about 100% the game vs the number of people who actually buy/play it is probably so small, they don’t even care. There’s no urgency to them fixing all the side quests/content because it only affects a small number of players, which begs the question, why make it so ridiculously long in the first place?
I was able to get the platinum through careful planning and (many) manual saves in about 140 hours. They could have shaved 100 hours off that time and the game would have been much more enjoyable and easier to fix.
They can do one with this dlc if they think I want to spend even more time doing the same thing.
The only reason Valhalla is selling so well is because it’s Vikings.
@mazzel "I'm wearing the same armor since I started the game"
My (entirely personal) take is that you're wearing the same armor for the whole game because the number of armor available to you in-game has been artificially reduced to implement micro-transactions. You're then left with a game that is not as enjoyable as it could have been, unless you're ready to pay more. I'm sure everyone will be bothered in different ways by that fact, but anytime that I see an item that I can't get by just playing the game, I feel frustrated, and it diminishes my experience.
The only micro-transactions that I could, maybe, accept, is what they call "time-savers" for things that you already can get in-game, but even then I wouldn't trust devs (and especially Ubifost) to not modify player progression to promote these time-savers.
TL;DR : cosmetics are an integral part of games, and putting them behind a paywall diminishes the value of the core game
Really looking forward to this Irish expansion
Given covid and the other issues Ubi has had to take action on, doubling down on making valhalla as good as it can be and then taking time on the next installment makes a lot of sense
I played a ton of Odyssey when the pandemic first hit. Loved it. Loved the setting. Valhalla is pretty awesome too.
'Stronger and Longer' is also the name of Yves Guillemot's sex tape.
Picked this up in the current sale and I'm pretty impressed so far. I'm playing with no HUD and no compass and it looks gorgeous. I'm also really liking female Eivor, it's like I'm playing as Cerys from The Witcher 3.
@Playstation It's definitely one of the longest games I played
We sadly probably won't see any more Immortals content beyond the already planned DLC
@Olmaz nah, I actually do so Hause it's a set for "bear" and it's already upgraded by the black smith, so no need to spend ressources beside leather and iron. So the limit for me (personally) is not the lack of armour, but the lack of ressources and I like to spend them on my weapons instead. On top of that, I really enjoy the tattoos you can put on Eivor. If Eivor is wearing armour, you basically can't see any, so off the armour goes
If you get frustrated by microtransaction items, just don't visit the Ubisoft store and problem solved. Again, I don't have the feeling, that they push MT on you. You actually actively have to look for it...
I'm all for them just doing a new AC every few years and taking the time to really build out each one. I know the last two have been divisive because they aren't 'true' AC games, but I found them both to be nicely well-rounded (if rather bloated) open world games. Don't have Valhalla, yet, but I'm sure it won't be long till it's up for twenty bucks.
I have no issue with expansions etc of current games. Especially since some of these maps are so huge they have empty areas that could be used for additional story etc.
Half the amount of armor sets in the game are from the cash shop...
@fR_eeBritney
Bit like what I get in my spam folder.
I almost never buy Ubisoft on release i found out that most of their games i bought stay in the wrap for a long time so why buy them on release. Is this a real AC feeling then its easy for me too pass on it.
I want to play it but not at full price, $20-$30 seems a good price for ubisoft games. I bought the division and new york expansion at about $20 on psn and I really enjoyed it on ps5.
I just finished the main quest and the killed the Father. I also got Excaliber and Thors hammer.
It took me 210 hours of gameplay. Even then i didnt get the platinum trophy.
I actually enjoyed the piles of stones things, the dice games and some of the mystery things. The Flyting bits were stupid and as for chasing those bloody tattoos around the place, the less said the better.
All in all i enjoyed it, but the lips not moving glitch need sorting. I didnt come across any game affecting glitches apart from that, no problems opening chests or anything.
@mazzel "So the limit for me (personally) is not the lack of armour, but the lack of ressources"
And why do you think you need that much resources to upgrade your armor?
@Olmaz SomInreally go and find every treasure there is? What's the point in putting the ressources scattered around the map if the game just throws them at you?
I'm not defending Micro transactions, but Valhalla really is not a bad example for MT!
Roughly translates to "More micro transactions and less actual content available in the game for ya know, free"
I'm really enjoying this game and trying to get a Platinum on it.
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