AC Shadows
This week will bring the launch of Ubisoft’s biggest game in half a decade, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, taking the series to feudal Japan in a big-budget release for the first time.
The game, since its premiere trailer almost a year ago, has been the subject of relentless criticism about its use of Yasuke, a black samurai pulled from history, as one of its two leads. Sometimes, historical accuracy is cited about whether he was really a samurai, other times it’s simply said that a black character shouldn’t be starring in a game like this, with a Japanese character like Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin preferred (the alternate lead of Shadows is a Japanese woman). It’s reflective of recent “anti-DEI” social trends online and now, normalized in the US government.
This has spiraled into an entire movement against the game, and as tends to happen, that can result in direct harassment of individual developers involved. And Ubisoft appears to be bracing for that, post-launch.
A new report from France’s BFMTV cites anonymous Ubisoft employees giving details about what’s happening internally, including advice to not post on social media that they even work at Ubisoft to avoid harassment. In fact, an entire anti-harassment plan has reportedly taken shape by comité social et économique, an employee-elected group required for French companies with 11 or more employees with a role to represent and advocate for employees within the company, (Ubisoft Quebec made Assassin’s Creed Shadows) to respond to issues, including offering psychological and legal support.
AC Shadows
If this sounds over the top, there have been many such instances of individual developers targeted over games deemed “woke” or anti-anti-DEI statements they’ve made. This can involve them being personally attacked and brigaded online or their actual faces being plastered on YouTube thumbnails. At times, even developers with progressive t-shirts, stated pronouns or certain color hair seen in vidocs are cited as “the problem” with the game or modern gaming in general.
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Whether all Ubisoft employees will abide by the social media suggestions, with many avoiding saying they work there or on the game, remains to be seen. As does the overall response to Shadows after release, as Yasuke’s role remains prominent. We may be in for an entirely separate variant of this process all over again when the female led-Ghost of Yotei samurai game comes out later this year, a change from its original male lead in the first game (it takes place in an entirely different time period). Regardless, with each new release, this “DEI” focused pushback and anger does not seem to be going anywhere, at least in the US where it’s now become more prominent than ever before.
Update: Here is an Ubisoft statement on this issue, directly:
“Our stance has always been that team members’ social media channels are their own. Our top priority is the safety of our employees, including online, which is why, as a standard practice across Ubisoft, we offer guidance on navigating social media, digital safety, and support for team members’ well-being. We also share resources to help prevent and protect against online harassment, something our teams have unfortunately faced.”
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