Launch gross sales projections for Ubisoft’s Murderer’s Creed Black Flag remake appear to be an enormous enchancment on Murderer’s Creed Shadows, the franchise’s most up-to-date launch.
Steam pre-orders for Murderer’s Creed Black Flag Resynced are 5.39 instances larger than these for Shadows, in accordance with trade analyst Rhys Elliot of Alinea Analytics. Remarkably, this implies Resynced has already overwhelmed the lifetime gross sales of Cranium & Bones, Ubisoft’s pricey, long-in-development pirate spinoff from Black Flag that finally emerged in 2024.
Writing on Substack, Elliot acknowledged that Resynced appeared set to be a “much-needed hit for Ubisoft” following a combined response to Shadows and a turbulent time on the writer marked by common layoffs and studio closures.
Launched in 2025 after a notable delay and months of pre-release controversy, Murderer’s Creed Shadows in the end did not capitalize on pent up demand for its long-awaited feudal Japan setting. Ubisoft just lately launched a remaining replace for the sport, killing ongoing assist after simply 12 months and just one post-launch growth — a fraction of the eye given to different latest blockbusters akin to Murderer’s Creed Odyssey and Valhalla.
Ubisoft has avoided releasing up-to-date gross sales figures for Shadows, as a substitute stating solely that the sport had handed 5 million gamers in mid-2025 — a quantity that may also embody those that had performed the sport through entry inside a subscription service.
Elliot acknowledged that Shadows has truly now bought 5.7 million copies, of which 23.8% have been on PC (round 1.3 million). The majority of Shadows’ gross sales, 53.6%, have been on PS5, whereas the remaining 23.6% have been on Xbox. By comparability, Murderer’s Creed Odyssey is understood to have bought a minimum of 10 million copies, whereas Valhalla has bought greater than that (although once more, Ubisoft avoided divulging particular figures — merely that it has generated an infinite $1 billion in income.)
Resynced is a ground-up remake that focuses on Black Flag’s primary Caribbean-set story that stars Edward Kenway and a forged of in style pirate characters akin to Blackbeard, Charles Vane, and Ann Bonney. The unique sport’s multiplayer and modern-day sections should not included, although a large quantity of recent content material has been woven into its core narrative as a substitute.
“Black Flag Resynced is a well timed technique for a struggling Ubisoft,” Elliot concluded. “After a turbulent few years of pricey growth, delays, and high-profile misses (paradoxically together with Cranium & Bones, which spun out of Black Flag’s personal naval tech), Ubisoft is coping with fractured pipelines. Constructing an unproven new IP from scratch is a six-to-eight-year gamble costing a whole lot of hundreds of thousands.
“Excessive-fidelity remakes of beloved legacy titles are the low-risk various – and one Ubi hasn’t actually leveraged a lot but. Such remakes reuse a universally praised design blueprint, decreasing inventive danger whereas guaranteeing a built-in viewers.”
Murderer’s Creed Black Flag Resynced launches this Thursday, July 9 and you’ll examine IGN’s launch instances information to search out out precisely when the sport unlocks in your area.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You possibly can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social