Ubisoft will now spend longer on each Assassin's Creed Valhalla patch before release
"Some of our recent title updates may not have met your expectations."
Ubisoft has said it will now work for longer on each Assassin's Creed Valhalla patch before each is pushed live, in a bid to better cut down the game's bugs.
Patches for the game will shift from a four-week to five-week release cycle "to allow for more thorough testing and refinement", Ubisoft said in a detailed blog update on the matter.
"Our community is at the heart of everything we do, and we always strive to provide you with great experiences," the publisher continued. "That said, we recognise that some of our recent title updates may not have met your expectations or been up to our standards."
Months after launch, Valhalla still has a whole list of long-running issues, including main quest blockers, which have impacted a small number of players.
Ubisoft has been publicly tracking these issues in an enormous thread on its community forum, which it keeps regularly updated.
Fixes for some of these issues are on the way in the next update, while many more are still being investigated.
The quest "In the Absence of an Ealdorman" has been a particular issue for some. In its blog, Ubisoft says:
"This quest has several different cases of issues tied to it that are conditional and can be player-specific. Therefore, you may see fixes in the patch notes that might not address your particular issue with this quest, but rest assured, we are looking into every reported instance."
Optional side-quest Pig of Prophecy has also been bugged for some people. This will be fixed in the next update. Here's Ubisoft again:
"Every issue is categorised based on severity, impact, and frequency. Since the Pig of Prophecy is considered side content, we've prioritised more impactful story progression blockers first. All that said, we have found a solution and are aiming to include it with Title Update 1.2.1 (April)."
Missing fish spawns throughout England are another long-term issue. Here, there's cod news and bad:
"As we've shared, we found a potential fix at the beginning of April to populate the missing fish across England. As this solution has a direct impact on existing fauna and mechanics, we moved the full fix into June to further test and refine. However, there'll be a partial solution with Title Update 1.2.1 (April)."
The article also gives a detailed run-down of how the bug-fixing process works on a video game, from identification to testing to first-party submission. It's not new knowledge, by any means, but Ubisoft is clearly trying to show its working.
Looking ahead, Valhalla's next title update is now scheduled for next Tuesday, 27th April, with its delayed Wrath of the Druids expansion due on 13th May.
After that, the game's following title update will arrive "late spring", with its new Mastery Challenge game mode up next, also slated for "late spring".