Since its first official presentation, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been the subject of heated controversy. Ubisoft responds and condemns it in a rather unusual way.
Instead of a general message on behalf of the French giant, this time it is directly its CEO, Yves Guillemot, who is in fact directly defending Assassin’s Creed Shadows. A position rare enough to be underlined.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows defended by the CEO of Ubisoft himself
Last May, Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally appeared in the form of a proper trailer. Despite the fact that its two protagonists, Yasuke and Naoe, were already known in advance, this video ignited a lively controversy on the Web. Particularly concerning its male protagonist, of African origin and representing the samurai caste in the game. If the man did indeed live in Japan in the 16th century, the time when Shadows sets its plot, obtaining such a title would a priori be anything but historic. Some, including Elon Musk himself, suspected Ubisoft of having made this choice for reasons of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion). As a reminder, this is a framework adopted by many companies to support on paper fair treatment and inclusion of all peoples, even those underrepresented in the past.
Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, recently took a stand to defend Assassin’s Creed Shadows, as part of a question and answer session. He denounces this controversy as being “ malicious ” And ” harming group employees “. He continues his message thus: “ I want to make it clear that, at Ubisoft, we condemn these hateful acts in the strongest possible way. I encourage the rest of the industry and gamers to also report them “The boss of the French giant therefore firmly defends the creative vision of Ubisoft Quebec, in a manner that is quite unusual within the industry.
A controversy more profitable than damaging?
Despite this heated controversy and the wave of red thumbs addressed to the latest Assassin’s Creed Shadows videos on YouTube, it seems to be off to a good start for its release scheduled for November 15 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series. Its collector’s editions, although quite expensive, sold out just moments after their announcement. Pre-orders for the standard version are also apparently doing very well.
This is the case in Japan, where the public was among the most critical of the choice of Yasuke to represent a samurai, believing that it was an insult to the rich history of the feudal period of this country. Assassin’s Creed Shadows nevertheless occupies the 27th place of the best sales on PS5. So see you on D-Day next November, to find out if all this bad buzz will have really been more profitable than harmful, or the opposite.