Assassin’s Creed Shadows – Deep Dive Into the Nintendo Switch 2 System Port

IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


www.ubisoft.com

Assassin’s Creed Shadows – Deep Dive Into the Nintendo Switch™ 2 System Port

Bringing one of Ubisoft’s most ambitious open worlds to Nintendo Switch™ 2.
www.ubisoft.com www.ubisoft.com

Assassin's Creed Shadows comes to Nintendo Switch™ 2 on December 2nd, and we couldn't be more excited to bring Naoe and Yasuke's journey in feudal Japan to wherever you like to play, whether that's on TV or on the go.

All title updates released to date will be available at launch on Nintendo Switch™ 2, with the exception of the Claws of Awaji expansion, which is scheduled for February 2026. This version supports cross-progression via Ubisoft Connect, ensuring you can continue your journey seamlessly across platforms.

Behind the scenes, bringing such a large and detailed open world - originally developed for current-gen home consoles - to Switch™ 2 required one of Ubisoft's most ambitious technical undertakings to date. The result is a seamless, high-fidelity experience, whether you're playing in handheld or docked mode.
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"Bringing Shadows to Switch™ 2 was one of the toughest but most rewarding challenges I have ever tackled," says Bruno. "We had to rethink almost everything, from the way the world is rendered to how systems interact, all while keeping the soul of the game intact."

The team's top priority was keeping the game visually stunning. Assassin's Creed Shadows was praised for its immersion and sense of scale, and players needed to feel that same magic on Switch™ 2. But actually delivering that magic while keeping our framerate target of 30 FPS in both docked and handheld modes required a careful balancing act.
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For example, we're using the same cloud and cloth simulation systems, but we've optimized certain elements for the ARM processor and downscaled simulation data where needed to reduce GPU load, all while preserving visual fidelity.

Additionally, while the Switch™ 2 supports ray-traced Global Illumination, we opted to use our solid baked Global Illumination system (which we also use for low-spec PC setups and Xbox Series S versions), mainly for RAM memory reasons. This approach lets us preserve the overall experience as much as possible.
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The team also used Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS), a technology that leverages sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms to generate high-resolution visuals from lower-resolution images.

In the end, this results in a sharper image, with more accurate colors, improved textures, and fewer visual anomalies. Performance is also smoother, offering higher FPS through upscaling, better fluidity, and reduced latency.
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I was one of the people shitting left n right on this game, but I bought it anyways in a sale.
It's not that i have to take everything back I've sayed about the game but it's not bad.
I mean i can't play it for to long couse i get an Ubi fatigue playing it but i return to it regulary.
Will i double dip to buy it on Switch 2? No, but i would buy this version when i wouldn't owned it already.
 
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For the Switch 2, it looks fine? You can clearly see where the concessions have been made. The textures, lighting, framerate, far distance detail, foliage quality, etc are all degraded. The frame rate seems shaky though..... Would I play it this way? Absolutely not.
 
if at least the game was good, IQ may look better than XSS due DLSS but i want to know what the internal res is, also "target 30fps" not locked, i wonder how low it ll dip under demanding gameplay since there is no combat in these teasers.
 
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EverydayBeast said:
Gotta have assassins creed in your console they never did that for switch 1 did they
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They did but it was always a collection or special edition of one of the older games.

Removing Ray-tracing means that only two games on Switch 2 support it (RE9 and SWO) but it was for the best to make sure the game ran stably so not blaming them.

All that said, I don't care of AssCreed games so I didn't plan on getting this.
 
It will be interesting to see whether it's going to use the normal DLSS model or the (admittedly terrible) lite one.
 
I think it looks even better than SW2 Outlaws, and that was already a quality port. Gotta give props to Ubi, they're putting out some of the best 3rd party ports on the new nintendo system.
 
mèx said:
It will be interesting to see whether it's going to use the normal DLSS model or the (admittedly terrible) lite one.
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They already said to haven't enough RAM for the raytracing surely it's not encouraging.
and fewer visual anomalies
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ok let it go, I missed this quote about the DLSS use.
 
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memoryman3 said:
No GI raytracing. Thanks God Starwars Outlaw was revelatory of the raytracing capability of the Switch 2 how not. Disappointed.
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Is that why this multiplat bombed so hard that Ubisoft cancelled the expansion while Yotei was a hit like like the first game.
LectureMaster

News  Thread 'Ubisoft No Longer Plans to Release a Second Assassin's Creed Shadows Expansion'

www.ign.com

Ubisoft No Longer Plans to Release a Second Assassin's Creed Shadows Expansion - IGN

Ubisoft has confirmed it no longer plans to launch a second major Assassin's Creed Shadows expansion, something that previously would have formed part of the game's now-scrapped season pass.
www.ign.com www.ign.com

Ubisoft No Longer Plans to Release a Second Assassin's Creed Shadows Expansion

Ubisoft has confirmed it no longer plans to launch a second major Assassin's Creed Shadows expansion, something that previously would have formed part of the game's now-abandoned season pass.

Shadows' first — and now, it seems, only — major expansion launched in September. The 10-hour Claws of Awaji had previously been described as the "first expansion" included in Shadows'...
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graywolf323

Sales-Age  Thread 'Chris Dring: Ghost of Yotei is the biggest 1st party PlayStation launch in Europe since Spider-Man 2, with launch sales in-line with Ghost of Tsushima'



www.thegamebusiness.com

Ghost of Yotei delivers strong opening across Europe

But EA Sports FC 26 holds on at No.1
www.thegamebusiness.com www.thegamebusiness.com

opened 2nd behind EA Football Club, biggest PlayStation first-party launch in Europe since Spider-Man 2

edit: credit to @DForce who posted about this first in another thread
DForce said:
Europe data is out.
Ghost of Yotei launch sales are in line with Ghost of Tsushima's


Seems like slightly above.
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Magusx said:
how can you tell?
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Interesting question actually. Its hard to explain but I've been using DLSS for a long time on pc now and when I see pictures or videos in motion I can tell if a game is using it. I think it's a combination of clean IQ and how crisp textures and assets look.

When I watch those pictures and check the videos I recognize immediately that there is some sort of temporal reconstruction in place like DLSS

Its something my eye can see but I cant explain it properly. I know it sounds weird but since I am so picky with image quality I guess I have developed the skill to guess these things
 
Magusx said:
how can you tell?
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no other upscaler looks that good at 1080p output with 720p and lower internal resolutions

I have a 3070 and a 1080p screen and all upscalers other than DLSS tends to look horrible to the point they're unbearable for me. DLSS is really good at 1080p since the arrival of the preset E. there was also a time when devs would ignore LOD bias adjustments and you would end up with textures that are meant for 720p output so DLSS looked extra bad at 1080p for a while in some games (which is why some people believed it was unusable at 1080p). with preset E and LOD bias adjustments, DLSS looks great at 1080p these days in modern games. on top of that, it often ends up with better image quality than native 1080p with TAA with a way lower internal resolution

all of this is relevant for 1080p monitors and handheld screens of course. it may still end up looking blurry and horrible on your average 4K screen. if you don't care about the blurry part though, it mostly produces clean visuals from low internal resolutions that no other upscaler can achieve yet

anyways port looks great. the game is much more than ray tracing with its dynamic weather, wind and physics simulations. should be an enjoyable experience. i wonder if hair strands for naoe is enabled or not. that's one of the best things this game has to offer
 
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Looks good. Looks like it takes some effort still, but switch 2 can handle aaa better than switch 1 could.
 
Wow this is super impressive. It's telling that if you put in the effort you can release a AAA game on the switch 2 and have it look and run pretty damn well. Good job Ubisoft
 
Hero_Select said:
Wow this is super impressive. It's telling that if you put in the effort you can release a AAA game on the switch 2 and have it look and run pretty damn well. Good job Ubisoft
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For being the first wave of games on the console is even more impressive, with the time is going to get better.
 
Very impressive for a 10 w system. Get a decent powerbank and you can game for hours and hours far longer than any handheld that suck up all the power.
 
FalconPunch said:
For the Switch 2, it looks fine? You can clearly see where the concessions have been made. The textures, lighting, framerate, far distance detail, foliage quality, etc are all degraded. The frame rate seems shaky though..... Would I play it this way? Absolutely not.
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What a shocker.
 


  • Assassin's Creed Shadows on Switch 2 offers a single display mode. For this comparison, Xbox Series S and PS5 were used in quality mode.
  • The Switch 2 version has general cutbacks in all visual aspects compared to the other versions. Lighting, level of detail, textures, animations, shadows, draw distance, reflections, etc.
  • Despite these cutbacks, Switch 2 maintains a fairly good visual level.
  • The resolution is very similar to what we saw in Star Wars Outlaws with good use of DLSS.
  • The problem with this version is its difficulty in maintaining a stable 30fps, especially in urban areas with a higher density of NPCs.
  • Assassin's Creed Shadows on Switch 2 must have been quite a challenge for Ubisoft in terms of optimisation, and that is commendable. Let's hope that over time they achieve a more solid frame rate.
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