When asked how Ubisoft decided to tell a lot of Naoe and Yasuke's story through flashback sequences, Dumont told us, "I think it comes from watching a lot of anime." and explained that anime series' are "masters of exposing background character stories through flashbacks to expose missing pieces of character motivations."

Worldwide, Shadows has reached more than three million players so far. Shadows had the second-highest day-one sales revenue for any Assassin's Creed game, only trailing Valhalla. Shadows did beat Valhalla by one measurement, though, setting a record for the most day-one digital revenue on the PlayStation Store for the Assassin's Creed franchise.

The latest Ubisoft release set in feudal Japan had a lot of pressure on it to perform, but it can't fill in the hole Ubisoft dug for itself.