{"id":135659,"date":"2025-03-04T17:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T17:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/developer.apple.com\/news\/?id=q2zte70j"},"modified":"2025-03-04T17:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T17:00:11","slug":"assassins-creed-shadows-comes-to-mac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2025\/03\/04\/assassins-creed-shadows-comes-to-mac\/","title":{"rendered":"Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows comes to Mac"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"In<\/div>\n

It\u2019s an ice-cold late winter\u2019s morning in Canada, but the offices of Ubisoft Quebec are ablaze with excitement.<\/p>\n

The Ubisoft team is preparing the release of Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows<\/em>, the 14th main entry in the series and an evolution for the franchise in nearly every detail. It\u2019s set in feudal 16th-century Japan, a rich and elegant period that\u2019s been long sought-after by fans and Ubisoft team members alike. It introduces a pair of fierce protagonists: Yasuke, a powerful warrior of African origin, and Naoe, an agile Shinobi assassin, both brought to life with attention to historical accuracy. Its world feels alive with an ever-changing dynamism that\u2019s apparent in everything from the shifting weather to the rotating seasons to the magical interplay of light and shadow.<\/p>\n

And what\u2019s more, it\u2019s set to release on Mac the same day it arrives on PCs and consoles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a longtime dream to bring the game to Mac,\u201d says Ubisoft executive producer Marc-Alexis C\u00f4t\u00e9, who debuted the game on Mac during the WWDC24 Keynote. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible that I can now open a MacBook Pro and get this level of immersion.\u201d Shadows<\/em> will also be coming later to iPad with M-series chips.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n
\n

Naoe, one of the game\u2019s two protagonists, is an agile assassin who\u2019s at her best when striking from the shadows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Today marks one of the first times that the gaming community will get its hands on Shadows<\/em>, and to celebrate the occasion, the Ubisoft offices \u2014 a mix of cozy chalet-worthy reclaimed wood and wide-open windows that afford a view of snowy Quebec City rooftops \u2014 have been reskinned with an Assassin\u2019s Creed<\/em> theme, including a display that emphasizes the heft of Yasuke\u2019s weapons, especially an imposing-looking 13-pound model of the character\u2019s sword. (On this day, the display is hosted by associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois, who appears quite capable of wielding it.)<\/p>\n

Download Assassin’s Creed Shadows from the Mac App Store<\/a><\/p>\n

C\u00f4t\u00e9 calls Shadows<\/em> his team\u2019s \u201cmost ambitious\u201d game. In crafting the game\u2019s expansive world, Ubisoft\u2019s development team took advantage of an array of advanced Mac technologies: Metal 3 (working in concert with Ubisoft\u2019s next-generation Anvil engine), Apple silicon, and a mix of HDR support and real-time ray tracing on Macs with M3 and M4 that C\u00f4t\u00e9 says was \u201ctransformative\u201d in creating the game\u2019s immersion.<\/p>\n

\n

It\u2019s been a longtime dream to bring the game to Mac.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Marc-Alexis C\u00f4t\u00e9, Ubisoft executive producer<\/p>\n

<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSeeing those millions of lines of code work natively on a Mac was a feeling that\u2019s hard to describe,\u201d C\u00f4t\u00e9 says. \u201cWhen you look at the game\u2019s performance, the curve Apple is on with successive improvements to the M-series chips year after year, and the way the game looks on an HDR screen, you\u2019re like, \u2018Is this real?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows<\/em> is a balance of the technical and creative. For the former, associate technical director Mathieu Belanger says the capabilities of Mac laid the groundwork for technical success. \u201cThe architecture of the hardware is so well done, thanks in part to the unified memory between the GPU and CPU. That made us think the future is bright for gaming on the platform. So many things about doing this on Mac were great right out of the box.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n
\n

Naoe\u2019s counterpart, Yasuke, prefers the use of brute force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

On the creative side, Ubisoft creative director Jonathan Dumont focused on a different opportunity. \u201cThe important thing was: Does this feel right? Is it what we want to send to players? And the answer was yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The creative team\u2019s goal was nothing short of \u201cmaking this world feel alive,\u201d says Martin Bedard, a 20-year Ubisoft veteran who served as the game\u2019s technology director (and is very good at playing as Naoe). \u201cYou\u2019re put into a moment that really existed,\u201d he says. \u201cThis story is your playground.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also fluffy kittens. We\u2019ll get to those.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n
\n

The ever-changing seasons lend an incredible variety to the game\u2019s environments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

And there\u2019s tremendous power behind the beauty, because the game\u2019s biomes, seasons, weather, and lighting are all dynamic creations. The sunset hour bathes the mountains in soft purple light; the sun\u2019s rays float in through leaves and temple roofs. Pretty much every room has a candle in it, which means the light is always changing. \u201cLook at the clouds here,\u201d says Bedard, pointing at the screen. \u201cThat\u2019s not a rendering. These are all fluid-based cloud simulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJapan feels like it\u2019s 80 percent trees and mountains,\u201d says Dumont. \u201cIf you\u2019re building this world without the rain, and the winds, and the mountains, it doesn\u2019t feel right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Wherever you are, wherever you go, everything is beautiful and alive.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mathieu Belanger, associate technical director<\/p>\n

<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And those winds? \u201cWe developed a lot of features that were barely possible before, and one of them was a full simulation of the wind, not just an animation,\u201d says Belanger. \u201cWe even built a humidity simulation that gathers clouds together.\u201d For the in-game seasons, Ubisoft developed an engine that depicted houses, markets, and temples, in ever-changing conditions. \u201cThis was all done along the way over the past four years,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

To pursue historical accuracy, Dumont and the creative team visited Japan to study every detail, including big-picture details (like town maps) to very specific ones (like the varnish that would have been applied to 16th-century wood). It wasn\u2019t always a slam dunk, says C\u00f4t\u00e9: In one visit, their Japanese hosts recommended a revision to the light splashing against the mountains. \u201cWe want to get all those little details right,\u201d he says. (A \u201cfull-immersion version,\u201d entirely in Japanese with English subtitles, is available.)<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n
\n

To recreate the world of 16th-century Japan, the Ubisoft creative visited Japan to study every detail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Ubisoft\u2019s decision to split the protagonist into two distinct characters with different identities, skill sets, origin stories, and class backgrounds came early in the process. (\u201cThat was a fun day,\u201d laughs Belanger.) Ubisoft team members emphasize that choosing between Naoe and Yasuke is a matter of personal preference \u2014 lethal subtlety vs. brute force. Players can switch between characters at any time, and, as you might suspect, the pair grows stronger together as the story goes on. Much of Naoe\u2019s advantage comes from her ability to linger in the game\u2019s shadows \u2014 not just behind big buildings, but wherever the scene creates a space for her to hide. \u201cThe masterclass is clearing out a board without being spotted once,\u201d says Bedard.<\/p>\n

\n

(The Hideout is) peaceful. You can say, \u2018I feel like putting some trees down, seeing what I collected, upgrading my buildings, and petting the cats.\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Jonathan Dumont, Ubisoft creative director<\/p>\n

<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which brings us to the Hideout, Naoe and Yasuke\u2019s home base and a bucolic rural village that acts as a zen-infused respite from the ferocity of battle. \u201cIt\u2019s a place that welcomes you back,\u201d says Dumont. It\u2019s eminently customizable, both from a game-progression standpoint but also in terms of aesthetics. Where the battle scenes are a frenzy of bruising combat or stealth attacks, the Hideout is a refuge for supplies, artwork, found objects, and even a furry menagerie of cats, dogs, deer, and other calming influences. \u201cThere are progressions, of course,\u201d says Dumont, \u201cbut it\u2019s peaceful. You can say, \u2018I feel like putting some trees down, seeing what I collected, upgrading my buildings, and petting the cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kittens were a P1 feature,\u201d laughs associate game director Dany St-Laurent.<\/p>\n

\"In<\/p>\n
\n

Yasuke prepares to face off against an opponent in what will likely be a fruitful battle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Yet for all those big numbers, Dumont says the game boils down to something much simpler. \u201cI just think the characters work super-well together,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s an open-world game, yes. But at its core, it features two characters you\u2019ll like. And the game is really about following their journey, connecting with them, exploring their unique mysteries, and seeing how they flow together. And I think the way in which they join forces is one of the best moments in the franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if the Ubisoft team has its way, there will be plenty more moments to come. \u201cI think the game will scale for years to come on the Mac platform,\u201d says C\u00f4t\u00e9. \u201cGames can be more and more immersive with each new hardware release. We\u2019re trying to create something here where more people can come with day-one games on the Mac, because I think it\u2019s a beautiful platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Download Assassin’s Creed Shadows from the Mac App Store<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s an ice-cold late winter\u2019s morning in Canada, but the offices of Ubisoft Quebec are ablaze with excitement. The Ubisoft team is preparing the release of Assassin\u2019s Creed Shadows, the 14th main entry in the series and an evolution for the franchise in nearly every detail. It\u2019s set in feudal 16th-century Japan, a rich and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-apple-developer-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}