Ubisoft Responds to Assassin's Creed Shadows Criticism, Apologises to Japanese Players

"Since [Shadows'] announcement, we have received many positive reactions..."

You know what Ubisoft, let's look at all these satisfied customers!

yep.

Caving to the very vocal online minority it seems.

This must be a translation because surely you wouldn’t address your Japanese community in English…

@HotGoomba I always love your sarcastic takes, Goomba.

Those who are Japanese here, how do you guys feel about this?

The Assassin’s Creed games have always played a little fast and loose with historical facts, but that’s not unique to Ubisoft’s properties. And I realize the backlash on this game is more nuanced than just being historically accurate.

But just as a fan of historical narratives, I’ve softened over time on my annoyance with writers taking creative liberties with history. It used to annoy me, but now I think it serves a purpose if it gets people interested in the time period and then researching and reading up on the actual facts and history. Most of the West had no idea the historical figure Yosuke existed, for example. Now we all learned a little something we didn’t know.

The most annoying part about all this is that many of the same people upset with the Yasuke situation would have still been upset if they went with a Japanese man instead. Then the complaint would've been "Typical Ubisoft. No originality. Just copying Ghost of Tsushima." Blah blah blah.

Damned if you do. Damned if you don't. I'm done debating this whole thing. Feel however you want about it. I'm just ready to play the game.

Since I know where Japan is, I identify as a Japanese person and I accept the apology

From the recent stock drop to the Japanese government starting to look into this I am not surprised by this move. I feel this Creed game will have the worst sales in the series.

@HotGoomba exactly...

"some onlookers" "deeply respect"

Way more than some and no respect given.

Hopefully the game under performs.

@get2sammyb that's alright then.

Ghost of Tsushima proved that a western developer could make a Japanese game high in quality with respect to the history and culture. I wonder if the backlash would be less harsh if Ghost hadn't set the bar so high.

@IntrepidWombat Ghosts of Tsushima also had historical inaccuracies. Just no one cared then.

What sets them apart is that Yasuke's black. That's not me saying that whoever hates on this game is racist, but had it not involved Yasuke there would be no controversy. It has absolutely nothing to do with Ghosts.

@get2sammyb Thanks for clarifying. As a non-Twitter/Ecchs user, it’s hard to see posts in chronological order, context, etc. without an account. Still seems like the English post is unnecessary if you’re addressing a Japanese audience, but hey, I’m sure it won’t unnecessarily stir things up.

200 years from now, there will be movies and games set in the 1970s that have cell phones.

They basically just said what everyone not blinded by weird rage has been saying this whole time.

I can't wait for this game to come out, get average reviews (because Ubisoft), and sell better than the last 4 Assassin's Creeds (because a lot of people like the setting, all publicity is good publicity, and people are really overestimating this online rage).

And then all the people calling on Ubisoft to fail will forget about this entire thing and start pressing Disney for Snow White, or something. And that won't be about racism either, you know, 'cause it's Snow 'White' and based on Europe — she shouldn't be anything but white. But the d***** woke, DEI of today has to ruin everything by including all the ethnicities that have frequently been ignored and marginalized throughout entertainment history. IT'S NOT FAIR!

Honestly, it would be nice if all these people hating on Ubisoft were actually hating on them for valid reasons. Like their toxic work culture. You know, something actually real that actually, directly affects people. But I guess 'black samurai' is just a more important issue...

The outrage over this is so cringy to witness. People are acting like this is the first time that artistic liberty has been used in historical fiction. Ghost of Tsushima, while an amazing game, had tons of historical inaccuracies, non-Japanese actors playing Japanese characters, mish-mashing of time periods, etc. People are just slamming this game because it's Ubisoft. So dumb.

@Yousef- I’m in the same boat with the AC series. I really enjoyed the early entries and considered it one of my favorite franchises in the AC2 days. My issue hasn’t so much been with the historical liberties taken, but rather with the over saturation of the games. For a while there was just too many of them.

I’m sensitive to the historical factual basis of media, but at some point I do think if a product is clearly fictional, then it can be loose with the details to fit a fictional narrative. Probably the piece that changed my mind about this was the musical “Hamilton”, which at face value seemed like such a stark recreation of history, but when I watched it I really enjoyed it and saw the entertainment value and how it piqued my interest in the history, despite it being so clearly full of creative inaccuracies. So games that are so fantastical, like time traveling into our ancestors’ DNA, can’t be taken too seriously. Obviously the historical subject matter needs to be treated with respect, and I know that’s part of what’s at issue here with AC: Shadows, but I don’t think we should expect documentary level accuracy in the fictional entertainment space.

Nevertheless, I’m not Japanese (nor Arab, in the case of Mirage) so can’t speak about anything offensive and willingly defer that to those directly affected.

The West needs to understand that not everyone in the world thinks like we do, especially when it comes to ESG and DEI.

That said, bro, it's Assassin's Creed. It has always been a comic in game form. Getting funny about it being historically inaccurate is kind of dumb tbh.

Would anyone have cared if Yasuke wasn’t black?

Doubt it.

What is the complaining tho? AC has never been historically accurate, never claimed to be, it borrowed sure ?? What games don't take liberty?
Is it because Japan is some sacred land ? No its not, just like the Scandinavians weren't in Uproar about Valhalla or the French on Unity
Is this really over skin color of a protagonist?? And some flag...

See guys, if you throw enough of a tantrum online, you CAN get an empty, hollow apology from the giant corporation that is really just them saying "okay, you win, please shut up now" and you really didn't actually accomplish anything. You'll feel like you did though, so that's a win!

@Uromastryx Ubisoft has literally, more than once, puts modes in their games that they have tried to sell as educational modes. They released a version that is JUST that for at least one of their games.

From what I've seen, the main architect of the "Yasuke was a samurai" story has been the subject of an academic scandal, so Ubisoft's self-satisfied vision for this game no longer has much justification--particularly in light of the objections of those whose culture is being rewritten.

They're clearly worried at this point, but regardless, I'm sure there will be plenty of consumers out there eager to feast on more slop.

Just an FYI but Onimusha 3 also starred a non-Japanese as one of its main character

That aside, at the end of the day, all I care about is how the story will go and how the gameplay works. All I'm hoping for is that this won't end up yet another open-world game that feels empty and have a lot of repetetive quests and filled with microtransaction/loot boxes BS.

@Yousef- Yes, agreed. That was one great thing about Sucker Punch’s Ghost game. It was nice to see (and play) another studios attempt at history. I really love games set in a historical background and with cultures I haven’t experienced before. The Plague Tale series is a great example of a fun fictional journey through an interesting time period. (see also: Valiant Hearts, Red Dead Redemption, a bunch of War based shooters, etc, etc). One of my surprise favorites from last year was Tchia mostly because it was a culture not previously represented in games. More Arab based games would definitely be welcome.

It’s a video game for crying out loud - not a historical work of non-fiction. People need to get over themselves. And why apologize for a game you spent years making if that was your vision? Either stand behind it or don’t put it out at all. Don’t kowtow to a minority of whiny players.

@IntrepidWombat Ghost of Tsushima is extremely inaccurate in many ways. No one cared because people like Sucker Punch. People are complaining now because Ubisoft is easy to hate on.

This trend of entertainment studio's apologizing and excusing before products are released lately, is really interesting. Especially considering the complete opposite to their counterparts who are just promoting.

-Ghost of Tsushima: no apology. Just amazing promotion.
-Ass Creed Shadows: already apologizing and excusing months before release.

-Rings of Power: Been apologizing and excusing since it was in concept. Wanting to make Tolkeins world for 'modern audiences'.
-The Lord of the Rings Trilogy: great promotion by all involved after making the series as tho it was to be watched by Tolkein himself.

-Star Wars Disney: huge promotion for a dedicated fan base that has, at best, had mixed results. The poor results always attack the fans.
-Star Wars Lucasfilm: huge promotion and even when the results are mixed, the reception is appreciative.

-Game of Thrones HBO: even with the high controversy of the final season, there was nothing but love for the material and George RR Martin even being directly involved.
-Wheel of Time Amazon: a complete dumpster fire, train wreck over-saturated with CGI garbage instead of good writing.

There's plenty of more examples. But what's the difference? True dedication and often reverence for the source material. Peter Jackson's trilogy was a love letter to Tolkein. Rings of Power...I dunno what that's supposed to be. Ghost was nearly a decade of love put into by Sucker Punch. Current Star Wars is almost degenerate in respect to the source material. And don't get me started on the Wheel of Time series, the actors aren't great but good lord...that storytelling and writing is trash.

@IamJT You can be inaccurate and still respectful. Black Flag was a good example of this. That game wasn't always very accurate, yet it was very respectful of my country's history, as well as other countries in the Caribbean. Sure, they took a few liberties, but still approached the subject matter with respect.

I think Yasuke’s story sounds like a fascinating one from a historical standpoint, and the idea of that story being explored in video game form is super interesting. And while there are definitely some stinking hot takes swirling around the internet regarding his inclusion in this game, I don’t think we should sweep all of the criticism away as simple bigotry, purely because this is Ubisoft we are talking about; a company that has historically placed monetary greed above all else, a company known for terrible anti-consumer, industry-worsening business practices. I think it’s entirely justified to be skeptical and critical of their decisions. Did Ubisoft just suddenly grow a moral conscience in this one instance, when it came to representation, or was it a hollow, disingenuous attempt at patting themselves on the back? Again, this is Ubisoft we’re talking about.

@WhiteRabbit What the hell are you talking about lol

If anything they’re the majority, and even the Japanese government is questioning this one.

What I still want to know is if Ubisoft are still going to use those flags that they took without permission. Or is a "lol sorry you're upset but we want that money" going to be all they're getting?

Probably will sell more than 10 millions like Odyssey did.
Imagine writing historical fiction and having to ask your readers for permission to create one of your main protagonists. 😂
People are really entitled nowadays.

And Ubisoft continues to dig themselves further and further into the ground.. Can SOMEBODY please snatch away Rayman and Immortals from them?

Insane to even give these mouth breathers attention. It’s widely been debunked that there’s a ‘major backlash’ in Japan, just a bunch of white dudes larping as Japanese with Google translate.

@nessisonett I have pretty much taken the stance that everything online is fake or posted for an ulterior motive 🤣 especially everything on Twitter. I know large video game companies have taken to being really responsive to fans and the online community, but I think if they ignored them completely it would barely effect profits.

@Maubari I’m not sure they are digging themselves in a hole. I really think most people who are going to buy this game are completely unaware of the conversation around it. I agree though I hate that large corporations sit on IP like Rayman and just do nothing with it.

I was fairly ambivalent as usual over this latest uproar, but once I read about what was going on with Thomas Lockley at Nihon university it was quite scandalous. Japanese have every right to be upset as this was more than just taking artistic liberties, there was an underhand attempt to rewrite the actual history and then cast aspersions on critics. Looks much more like a large corporation and self serving author trying to cover up for bad PR and making things much worse. Looks like he's been fired now, but it's quite a bizarre story if true.

The same people defending Ubisoft are the ones complaining about MiHoYo.
Anyways the fact remains that this is the first AC where we won't play as someone native to the region... Guess the japanese aren't worth in Ubisoft's eyes

@WhiteRabbit that is from your perspective.

Government are wide entities that address all sort of problems.

Addressing one concerning their culture doesn’t stop their military, their infrastructure and so on.

I suggest you start respecting other cultures instead of sticking to your own, narcissistic point of view.

Thank you

@CielloArc Stop being wilfully ignorant. There are two protagonists. One is Japanese and not based in history. One is black and is a real historical figure.

@CielloArc

That was Revelations.

We are only sorry because we want you to buy our game and don’t actually care about you.

• Ubisoft

"We're too far along to change anything meaningful, so here's our fluff peice apology"

I give their attempt at apologizing a 3/10.

@jrt87 I don’t think it’d matter tbh if they was Korean or Chinese like your example. I defo would have thought it was weird, but there’s still another character thats Japanese.

If it was just Yasuke then 100% i’d be calling it out too, but Naoe is there. So they obviously have some interesting dynamic or story to create with the two that explores the difference in culture or whatever, I don’t know cause haven’t played yet but we’ll see.

I just think this is a whole lot of overblown nonsense about nothing really.

Would I have preferred Naoe alone as a Japanese assassin, sure, but its not a dealbreaker by any means.

Two points:

1) This is hardly a matter of people insisting on strict historical accuracy in all video games. The real issue is that Ubisoft and others specifically represent the Yasuke story as an accurate one--because it's a story they happen to like--when that doesn't actually seem to be the case.

2) Relatedly, people aren't reacting to the choices made for this game in a vacuum. On its own, it would be a curiosity. The reason it's irritating is because it's in lockstep with the storytelling trend already happening across the industry. Ideological sensibilities are being forced again and again into creative works that never used to be so ham-handedly self-righteous.

It’s a video game. It isn’t going to be 100% historically accurate. Still going to play it.

Bad move, they should have just told the racists in Japan to get stuffed.

@Troubbble But people have always put their ideologies into artwork and media. As a consumer, you can just choose not to partake, or as a creative, you can choose to make your own with your own ideologies. This isn't a new trend, it has always been the case. The earliest example of the top of my head is someone like Caravaggio in the 1500s, who painted religious paintings with an ulterior motive of undercutting the message (while also dueling people in the streets with swords and chilling with prostitutes all day). If a majority of game developers want to tell such stories that's their right and consumers have the right not to purchase. As of right now, there have been successful stories on both sides of when consumers purchased or rejected the product. Regardless, this is nothing new but its being treated like some wild conspiracy.

If we are being honest Ubisoft probably thought that Yasuke would be a shield against all criticism. I guess they never thought about Japanese people being upset by it... I'm still really excited to play it. But I see what you are doing Ubisoft.

@WhiteRabbit Yasuke is literally the only protagonist that has any basis in reality. The fact he’s being questioned is racism, pure and simple.

@WhiteRabbit Once again, "enthusiast" discourse has completely missed the plot. I wonder how well Assassin's Creed usually sells in Japan... the true irony will be when Shadows is the biggest selling Creed game in Japan all time.

AC is historical fiction. I'm not going to say on behalf of the Japanese whether this is offensive or not. And it appears that there is a kernel of truth to the character of Yasuke on which they could base this character.

For myself, my test for whether something is offensive is to reverse the situation and ask myself how I'd feel about it then.

What do people think the reaction to this game would be if AC's first mainline game set in historical Africa had a Japanese protagonist?

@IamJT I don't really disagree with much of what you said, except that corporate ESG ratings serve as a bit of a thumb on the scale when it comes to what type of messaging is permitted or encouraged.

And you're right that political ideas have always been infused into art, but again, it's the ham-handed and repetitive nature of the messages and character portrayals that I find most objectionable.

Don't remember this kinda energy for nioh
Don't recall assassin's creed being to historically accurate with it's ancient alien technology and mythical monsters.

But a black man in feudal Japan who I don't need to play as....to far Ubisoft to far

@Troubbble I understand. Generally, when a corporate movement (or political or social movement) begins in any form, the push is really hard in that direction, it is corrected by the market, and it evens out. Since the U.S. is such a huge driving force in this industry, and DEI and affirmative action are quickly becoming a thing of the past due to the Supreme Court, much of the things you object to will be disappearing in the near future.

On a personal note, I am totally okay with how things have been going because diversity, equity, and inclusion have, up until very recently, not existed as a matter of law. Discriminatory racially restrictive covenants were only outlawed in 1968 in the U.S., and their effect is still seen today. It takes a looooong time to correct injustice through the law, so it just makes sense to me that people take it into their own hands when it comes to their businesses and their art.

Currently, I think the biggest issue in the acceptance from part of the population of DEI in art and movies (cough Star Wars cough) is that rather than telling diverse stories through the creation of new characters and IP they are relying on old stories and changing fundamental aspects of them. At the same time, new IP is incredibly risky right now, and certain ethnic backgrounds absolutely dominated media when popular IP were created, so I am not sure there is a "good" way to make things better.

In the case of this game, I don't see the issue. The character existed, has been a part of many Japanese media stories in a similar way he is here, and honestly, no one even knows the story of this game yet. The most important thing is that people of differing opinions can just talk things out, and understand each other even if they leave the conversation not agreeing!

Once again, a small group moan about something trivial, a game, and a company backs down and apologises. This is why the world is the way it is. "I'm offended so you need to do what I want".

If they want to the game to be representative of their culture, shouldn't the game also depict their views towards mental health that is still seen as a weakness in Japan, and families will often disown disabled family members or sufferers of mental health because it brings shame on their family?

Work on that before insisting that a game is made the way you want it to be made.

@JB_Whiting Japan?

@Contimaloris bingo

Ubisoft should just followed what Mihoyo did, reminds these people that AC Shadows is a work of fiction and moved on. There's no need to keeps engaging or even throw an apology because these people will not satisfy until Ubisoft delete this game from existent.

@CielloArc "Anyways the fact remains that this is the first AC where we won't play as someone native to the region... Guess the japanese aren't worth in Ubisoft's eyes"

Naoe is playable and she's a Japanese. And this isn't the first time an AC game where you don't play as a native to the region. There's AC Revelations and Black Flag.

@IamJT Again, mostly agreed--particularly with your very last point. We'd all be better served to stop labelling and accusing one another so much when we could be listening to each other with an open mind instead.

This game has fallen victim to the same problem as Concord: long development cycles. Both were designed inside a certain cultural context, but the culture is shifting as they come out.

Funnily enough, the Japanese responses to this release on Ubisoft's Japanese Twitter account are a pretty strong indicator of how on the nose this issue is for the Japanese.

The responses range from 'i don't really know what Ubisoft is trying to say' to 'this is not historically accurate so it shouldn't even be set in the sengoku period'. There are very few positive responses...

The term 'globalist historical revisionism' comes up also. And there are no positive comments regarding the work of Thomas Lockley, which Ubisoft seems to have derived the Yasuke character from.

I'd urge anyone wanting to weigh in on this to at least translate and read the Japanese responses before commenting.

@JB_Whiting the Japanese market is a relative minority for global gaming sales, but since the game is based around their history and culture, it's fair to say the Japanese be allowed the majority opinion.

I get alternate history but the historical resource people they have is their own thing in terms of what seen/heard.

I like Resistance/Wolfenstein for being alt history.

I don't care about realism/accuracy it's why I'll take more than authenticity to cars or people or other things in games/tv shows and whatever stereotypes/archetypes or starting point.

But won't deny the game has some hmm about it.

To present Japanese culture well I assume matters not just for that audience because it's set during the periods/location it is but others and because of the competition of Ghost of Tsushima (which did a better job and Japanese players were happy about it and of course had Sony as well maybe or others to get more info about aspects of history for the island/period),

or of Japanese devs making their own games set in those periods of time and obviously know their history well enough to present worlds around it. Especially with others on the market and proper research needed before changing it for an alt history take.

Though the Japanese that do comment on things can be similar to westerners of particular details positive/negative to give a star rating/response on Amazon of a product or service even when watching youtubers that are Japanese translate some things for us overseas viewers on certain topics.

Just delay the game a couple of month, fire all of their "japanese expert" team, change yasuke to random japanese people (like all their previous ac games), and hire sony ghost of tsushima expert team, done. I'm sure gamers will be hyped again for the game if ubisoft done that.

I must say, it's really impressive that one game can make diplomatic problems with the japanese though, ubisoft really trying hard to make japanese angry lol.

Koei Tecmo make much better games (not hard I know) than Ubisoft and treat Japan’s (and China’s) history and folklore a hundred times better. Just play those vastly superior games instead of the latest dull production line tripe from AAA developers who don’t care about gamers.

@CielloArc "The same people defending Ubisoft are the ones complaining about MiHoYo"

Wow. I didn't know I was complaining abouy MiHoYo. In fact, I need to look up MiHoYo to know what I should be complaining about.

@Savage_Joe China may be second, but how many ps5 consoles have been sold there? That's why context is important. And we all know that Japanese gamers have been interested only in Switch/Nintendo games for quite a while now.

@Savage_Joe relative minority...

@GigaFlare strongly disagree. No one asked Greeks how they felt about Odyssey nor should they. It's a video game and they can take as many liberties as they want. The offended people can simply skip it. But that would mean focusing on actual problems they have over something like this.

>Do you care about the creative liberties taken

This question is tendentious.

What? The game with gods and aliens and anachronistic technologies has some historical inaccuracies??

It's not like this is a serious documentary about how pyramids must be extraterrestrial because no way could multiple humans figure out that triangles don't fall over.

The people complaining about historical inaccuracies have never played an Assassin's Creed game in their life.

If this is bad, they should see what Ubisoft did to Greek, Italian, Egyptian, British and American history!

@naruball tell that to the Japanese gaming netizens. Again i'd encourage people to read the Japanese replies to Ubisoft's non-apology.

Ubisoft have specifically designed the game for modern western audiences, this is the result.

And that is a shame.

@CielloArc but we WILL play as someone native to the region. Stop being selective with the truth. You can't just make a blanket statement that is completely incorrect and mic drop out, it's not politics 😂

"Anyways the fact remains that this is the first AC where we won't play as someone native to the region... Guess the japanese aren't worth in Ubisoft's eyes"

Also, not sure if Edward Kenway is native to the Caribbean or no? 🥲

And who knows, maybe Eivor was born in Ledecestrescire? 🥲

@Ravix also Ezio (an Italian) was the protagonist for the AC game set in Turkey.

Far from the first time, Ubisoft did this decades ago.

To be clear, are they apologising to the Japanese players, or to the "Japanese" players?

@RoomWithaMoose I do believe Ghost of Thushima did a lot of effort for doing things historically accurate and the game was a blast and it looked gorgeous and that DLC was fantastic.

@naruball It really depends you can do some things that are not completely accurate but I'm certain there is stuff that will make people rage. You are not going to make a white Luther King or a black Cleopatra unless your Netflix ofcourse. I don't really know what the issue is here so I can't really tell what the issue is but even in a videogame or movie you can be disrespectful.

@KennethKoerperich88 wait? So “wokeness” is the issue here? Because no one cared about AC being “historically accurate” before this new guy was main character. Seems the opposite of wokeness is at play here. But if you say so…

@Flaming_Kaiser Okay...

Well, you can literally look up Sucker Punch saying they indulged in historical inaccuracies and see the game as more akin to a fictional movie than reality.

The game is just factually not historically accurate.

@Flaming_Kaiser actually, we don't know what Cleopatra looked like. So both black and white works. Even in academia there is no consensus. But I agree about Martin Luther King.

@GigaFlare why would I? They can be offended all they like, just like I was not offended when I played Odyssey.