Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced isn't just the best-reviewed game in the series in 13 years; it's also off to a flying start with more than 100,000 players on Steam alone. That's one of the highest opening weeks for an Assassin's Creed game in several years, and the number doesn't include Black Flag Resynced's availability through other PC storefronts, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, either.

One thing to note is that not every Assassin's Creed game has been available through Steam at launch, but Black Flag Resynced's performance can still be compared to recent releases. Assassin's Creed Odyssey peaked at 62,049 players during its launch week, and Assassin's Creed Shadows reached 64,825 players when it first hit the scene last year. Assassin's Creed Valhalla is something of an anomaly, as it wasn't available at launch through Steam.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niSS6zePbYs&t=2s

When Ubisoft did return to Steam after a gap of several years, it peaked at 15,679 players on launch day--two years after it first launched on PC and console--and it later surpassed that number in January 2026 with 19,181 players. For Black Flag Resynced, those are some impressive launch week numbers--even if they do pale in comparison to the similarly themed pirate game Windrose, which reached more than 220,000 peak concurrent users on Steam during its launch week in April.

While there's plenty to celebrate, several Black Flag Resynced developers at Ubisoft Barcelona are also facing layoffs following the game's launch. Part of the cuts that Ubisoft initiated in June, around 51 developers will be impacted, while Black Flag Resynced is expected to be a big seller for Ubisoft during a lean year of releases from the company.

As mentioned earlier, Star Citizen developer CIG elected to shift the major content portions of alpha 4.9 into an August release for alpha 4.10 in an effort to continue addressing alpha 4.8’s myriad bugs. That’s not to say that it’s only a bug-fixing patch, as the MMORPG’s latest video digest focuses on the features of the next build. As […]

https://www.newegg.com/playstation-100-00/p/N82E16832886063

Posted by u/mkdota · [comments]

The remake of Assassin's Creed Black Flag, Resynced, is off to a flying start. Before it even launched, the game was already on track to out-perform,Assassin's Creed Shadows, pulling in "roughly $14m in gross revenue" for publisher Ubisoft. Not bad!

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Aw shucks. That's a bummer. I'm not angry about it, though. Surely this had to happen, just like the execs said it did. I'm paraphrasing quite facetiously, but that is the basic gist of id Software co-founder John Carmack's reaction to the studio cutting 136 workers as part of Microsoft's mass layoffs earlier this week, a devastating blow that leaves the Doom developers facing an uncertain future.

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In light of recent layoffs at Xbox, rumors have indicated that Obsidian Entertainment was working on a sequel to its first-person action RPG Avowed, which reportedly got cancelled in favor of a new Fallout game developed by the studio. However, former co-founder of Obsidian, Chris Avellone, has taken to social media to reaffirm that Avowed 2 has not been cancelled.

According to Avellone, Obsidian was told that the projects it currently has in development were being “re-evaluated”. The studio is still seemingly on track to deliver on its planned expansions for The Outer Worlds 2, and while full development on Avowed 2 hasn’t yet begun, developers are reportedly hoping to “re-pitch” the concept.

“Aside from other news, Obsidian employees appear to have been told all the company’s projects were being ‘re-evaluated’ today,” wrote Avellone. “It seems Grounded is still going (mostly out-sourced in Eidos Montreal anyway, so no surprise), Outer Worlds 2 expansions still planned for now (1st one is Sept), and uh, despite reports, Avowed 2 is STILL being worked on (for now) in the hopes of being ‘re-pitched’ (whatever that means).”

He went on to note that other projects were being put on pause, including a rumored game based on the Shadowrun pen-and-paper tabletop RPG being headed up by John Gonzalez. Pillars of Eternity was also not mentioned. Responding to another post about how Avowed 2 may have gotten cancelled today, Avellone said that he has been told that the studio is continuing to work on it.

“They’re still working on it as of today, according to folks at Obsidian. They’re trying to ‘re-pitch’ it when the dust settles, probably because so much work was already put into it,” he said.

It is worth noting that, while Avellone has spent quite a bit of time at Obsidian working on projects like Pillars of Eternity, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 – The Sith Lords, and Fallout: New Vegas, he left the company in 2015. This means that any information he gets is dependent on his sources that are still working at the studio. In the meantime, Avellone himself has worked as a freelance writer on a variety of projects, with his most recent contribution being Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous.

In the meantime, Obsidian Entertainment was seemingly hit quite hard by Xbox’s layoffs, with reports indicating that it lost around 25 percent of its workforce. Some of the now-former employees of the studio include The Outer Worlds art director Daniel Alpert, as well as other experienced developers, and even the recruiter.

The studio’s most recent releases have included Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and the Early Access launch of Grounded 2. Currently, the studio hasn’t made any announcement regarding potential project cancellations or that it will stop its ongoing development of Grounded 2.

Xbox had also confirmed that the division was undergoing heavy restructuring, and CEO Asha Sharma announced that a new COO had been appointed who would be directly accountable for the division’s profits and losses going forward.

Aside from other news, Obsidian employees appear to have been told all the company’s projects were “re-evaluated” today.

It seems Grounded is still going (mostly out-sourced in Eidos Montreal anyway, so no surprise), Outer Worlds 2 expansions still planned for now (1st one is…

— Chris Avellone (@ChrisAvellone) July 8, 2026

They're still working on it as of today, according to folks at Obsidian. They're trying to "re-pitch" it when the dust settles, probably because so much work was already put into it.

— Chris Avellone (@ChrisAvellone) July 8, 2026