The next Assassin’s Creed isn’t coming to Stadia — it may be time to panic

The Assassin’s Creed game used in the first public Stadia test will not be the next installment in the series from Ubisoft.

It’s time for some doom and gloom now, guys. Yes, I’m here to discuss Stadia, and what do you know? Assassin’s Creed Mirage won’t be coming to Stadia, despite the fact that Ubisoft has been busy releasing games on the system since the initial test run in 2019. This information was provided to Axios Gaming by the developer. With less than 50 games under its belt as of this September, it’s clear Stadia is having trouble. Add this problem to the likelihood that Stadia won’t come close to meeting its 100-game release goal per year, and it becomes clear Stadia is having trouble.

What does this mean for the users ?

It essentially means that no one on Stadia will be using the upcoming Assassin’s Creed title. Whatever your opinion of how similar AC games play year after year, the latest game in the series not coming on Stadia is a terrible reflection on Google. Ubisoft has been the pillar and the only consistent of Stadia still bringing AAAs to the platform, but it appears that its support is beginning to wane. While games not coming to Stadia is scarcely news in 2022 given how other AAAs rapidly learnt to shun the platform. After all, an Assassin’s Creed game was the very first game that the general public tested on Stadia (back when it was still Project Stream). As one of the last major AAA publishers releasing games on Stadia, Ubisoft has been one of the platform’s most fervent supporters up to this point, making today’s announcement all the more concerning.

Don’t stress, more Ubisoft games are coming to Stadia

Of course, Ubisoft has made a point of letting people know that it still intends to release more games on Stadia this year, including Skull & Bones and Just Dance 2023, so it’s not like the developer is openly abandoning Stadia just yet. However, you have to wonder how many games will come from Ubisoft after the few that have already been announced are released.

Perhaps there’s more to the story

Another thing to keep in mind is that many of Ubisoft’s games don’t perform all that well on Stadia, with the majority being limited to 4K 30FPS at the high end and frequently exhibiting visible frame drops throughout down into the 20s and teens (even the ports that do support 60FPS at 1080p can’t hold this framerate stable). This type of performance hasn’t improved since Stadia’s servers were built, which is a result of their outdated specifications.

Furthermore, I’m referring to the game’s local performance, which is obvious while recording these games because that task is handled server-side. Local performance refers to how the game operates on the server before you view it as a stream. When I see that Assassin’s Creed Mirage isn’t coming to Stadia, my mind immediately rushes to the likelihood that Stadia just can’t run the game well enough to justify Ubi’s effort to convert the title. After all, neither Stadia nor Ubisoft are known for optimization. I have my suspicions, but it’s unlikely that we’ll ever know for sure if this is the cause.

What happens if the devs leave ?

My conclusion from this is that, yes, it initially appears awful that Ubisoft, of all businesses, won’t be bringing the most recent installment in a hugely popular franchise to the platform, especially given that Stadia essentially opened public testing with an Assassin’s Creed title. The mind may naturally turn to the doom and gloom that might be inferred from this information, but perhaps the true problem here is Google’s failure to modernize its servers.

Any way you look at it, Google isn’t doing a very good job with Stadia with its obvious lack of AAA titles and is far short of its goal of 100 games for the year. What’s more, this kind of news only appears to get worse with time. Assassin’s Creed won’t be released today, but what will happen when Ubisoft ultimately folds? What happens if the business makes a net loss and no one wants to release games on the platform? The most crucial question is what will happen to our games when Google permanently closes its doors. All of these are questions that neither I nor, tragically, Google have the solutions to. As a result, Stadia is turning into a questionable investment for all players. I am aware that I regret every transaction I made on the platform.