After not releasing an Assassin’s Creed game in 2019, Ubisoft shook the world when it revealed Assassin’s Creed Valhalla late last month.
And as many people expected and earlier rumors confirmed, this next Assassin’s Creed game will indeed feature Vikings, taking place in the 9th century and pitting the Viking hordes against the Saxons in bloodthirsty battle.
Ubisoft released an impressive cinematic trailer to go with the announcement, but failed to reveal a concrete release date, only saying that the game will arrive in time for the 2020 holiday season. There was also another trailer released which was supposed to showcase gameplay, but puzzlingly enough just showed more cinematics…
As has been the case with other Assassin’s Creed games, this will release on all major console platforms, including the PS4 and Xbox One (no Nintendo Switch version sadly), and also the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X, plus it will be out on Google Stadia too.
Of course, the game will also be coming to PC, but some PC gamers felt like Ubisoft had poured cold water on their backs when the French company revealed the PC version will be released on their own Uplay store as well as the Epic Games Store, but not on Steam.
This follows a recent trend in which high profile games have seen their PC versions release on the Epic store first, such as last year’s Metro Exodus, Control and Ubisoft’s own The Division 2.
Notice I’ve used the word “first” here – one of those games has already had a Steam release (Metro Exodus), and is available for purchase on Steam at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Control is an Epic timed exclusive and is likely to arrive on Steam this summer.
Regarding The Division 2, it’s not clear yet whether the game will ever see a Steam release. This is because Ubisoft teamed up with Epic last year to bring its major titles to the Epic Games Store instead of Steam.
The reason for this as TweakTown points is that Epic gives publishers a larger cut of the profits (reportedly 88 percent). The Division 2 was released on the Epic store and Ubisoft’s own Uplay store (on which the French company gets 100 % from each sale), but is yet to come to Steam.
And other Ubisoft releases like the upcoming Watch Dogs Legion are likely to follow suit.
This means that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is unlikely to be released on Steam anytime soon, so PC owners looking to play the game this holiday season will have to get it on Uplay or the Epic Games Store. And this will be something for a bummer for those who have built a huge library of games on Steam over the years, and who would rather play their games through Valve’s platform.
There’s still a glimmer of hope, though, as every single Assassin’s Creed game released to date (barring the mobile-only iterations) has eventually landed on Steam, but of course that was before Epic began luring publishers with the golden goose of bigger profits…
Nonetheless, I wouldn’t be surprised if Assassin’s Creed Valhalla eventually lands on Steam at some point in the future.
It not being on Steam at release, though, means I will be getting the PS4 version instead at launch, and maybe the Uplay version of the game when it’s available at a discounted price sometime down the road, as I’m not a fan of Epic’s store, and I’ve got enough storefronts and different game libraries to care about on PC anyway.
Here’s hoping nonetheless that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla eventually makes it to Steam, if only so that those who’ve been buying the Assassin’s Creed series on Valve’s store can someday complete their collection with Ubisoft’s upcoming Viking adventure.