Assassin's Creed Shadows drops promised early access for its big collector's edition, but it's also going to be $50 cheaper than planned

pcgamer.com:

Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin's Creed Shadows collector's edition, a honkin' big package that comes complete with a 16-inch statue, art book, wall scroll, and other such good stuff, will not include three days of early access to the game.

The three-day early access period was included as one of the benefits of the collector's edition, which is still listed (but not actually available for preorder) on GameStop. «Play up to three days early with the Collector's Edition, which includes the base game, the season pass, and various high-quality collector's Items,» it states.

Ubisoft alluded to the elimination of the early access period in September, when it announced the delay of Assassin's Creed Shadows to February 14, 2025, saying that «all players will be able to enjoy the game at the same time.» It's now been confirmed by Ubisoft community manager Ubi-RealDude, who wrote on the official Assassin's Creed Discord that «there is no early access for AC Shadows anymore.» It will instead be released at the same time as the standard edition on February 14.

To compensate for the loss of the early access period, the cost is being reduced: Instead of going for $280 as it was originally priced, the collector's edition will sell for $230—a pretty deep cut for what I would say is a relatively minor loss.

Ubi-RealDude said the digital contents of the Assassin's Creed Shadows CE «will mostly remain as initially advertised, although some design elements may change.» At least some of those changes can be seen in an updated promo image for the CE they shared: A reference to the season pass is out (Ubisoft said in the Assassin's Creed Shadows delay announcement that it was also «departing from the traditional season pass model») as is mention of a «Red Dragon photo filter.»

You can compare the original and updated CE images below:

There was some speculation when the Assassin's Creed Shadows delay was announced that Ubisoft would use the time to reduce the prominence of the