The petition to have Assassin’s Creed Shadows cancelled seems to be working, with Ubisoft implying they will make changes to the game before release.
The annoucement that this year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows will feature black samurai Yasuke as one of its lead characters caused considerable controversy in certain quarters.
Earlier this month, a petition from Japanese fans called for the game to be cancelled, because of vaguely described concerns about historical inaccuracy. Now Ubisoft has offered an equally vague apology, that seems to suggest they will be making changes to the game.
Although the original petition never mentioned him by name, most of the argument in the West has centred around playable character Yasuke, who was a real historical figure and whose samurai status Ubisoft now suggests is ‘a matter of debate and discussion’.
While there’s some question as to his exact role, Yasuke was a real person and, as a Japanese scholar has recently pointed out, there’s no doubt that he was a samurai, which is a social status that can encompass a variety of duties.
If anything, it’s the shinobi Naoe who’s the inauthentic one, since ninjas were primarily spies and their portrayal in Shadows seems to be based purely on the romanticised pop culture view of them, rather than anything from historical sources.
Although Ubisoft often likes to pretend the Assassin’s Creed games are historically accurate, they never really have been and in the lengthy Twitter apology, they admit that’Assassin’s Creed games are works of fiction inspired by real historical events and figures.
‘From its inception, the series has taken creative licence and incorporated fantasy elements to craft engaging and immersive experiences. The representation of Yasuke in our game is an illustration of this.’
The tweet also states that ‘We acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community. For this, we sincerely apologise.’
It’s not at all clear what this is referring to, unless it’s when someone noticed the game’s concept art had accidently used the logo of a reenactment group – but that hardly seems reason for a four-page Twitter apology.
The tweet adds ‘All game footage presented so far is in development and the game will keep evolving until launch.’
The Assassin’s Creed Shadows team has a message for our Japanese community. pic.twitter.com/AIyWNU9YhG
— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) July 23, 2024
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is due out on November 15, so there’s little time to change anything substantial, although the furore will no doubt change Ubisoft’s DLC plans.
Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has already complained at ‘malicious and personal’ attacks against the Shadows development team, with the new tweet also imploring ‘fans’ to leave consultants that worked on the game alone – especially as they had nothing to do with any final decisions.
Making a statement like this, this far out from release, is unusual for any publisher and suggests that Ubisoft is concerned about the game’s reception, and the negativity that increasingly surrounds it.
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