Assassin's Creed Shadows co-op mode in development - report

Ubisoft is working on a co-op mode for the delayed Assassin's Creed Shadows, a new report has claimed.

Already in development before the delay and currently planned as a post-launch addition, Ubisoft is said to be creating the co-op mode as an optional extra.

That's according to the latest Insider Gaming report on Shadows' development, which makes clear the co-op mode wasn't the cause of Ubisoft's recent decision to hold the game's release until 2025.

Ubisoft has publicly made no mention of a co-op offering for Shadows, which features two protagonists - the shinobi Naoe and the samurai Yasuke. The suggestion here, though, is that two players will be able to take charge of both characters and play side-by-side.

This would not be the first time Assassin's Creed has dabbled with a co-op option, but it would be the first in over a decade - since the technically-challenged French revolution-set Assassin's Creed Unity featured the option to play as four assassins side-by-side back in 2014.

But the fallout from Unity's broken launch tanked the Assassin's Creed series' reputation and sales figures, leading to a soft reboot of the franchise and a firm focus on it as a single-player series ever since.

That said, we know Ubisoft is experimenting with multiplayer possibilities for Assassin's Creed once again. Speaking to Eurogamer in 2022 about the franchise's future, Assassin's Creed boss Marc-Alexis Coté discussed Codename Invictus, a multiplayer-focused entry in the series that will hark back to the franchise's former multiplayer modes and likely feature various returning characters.

Earlier this week, another report alleged that Assassin's Creed Shadows staff reportedly pushed Ubisoft to delay Shadows for months to address concerns around game polish, feature tuning and narrative content.

Eurogamer has contacted Ubisoft for comment.