Ubisoft has made a statement about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, addressed to Japanese players.
For the sake of brevity, we will summarize Ubisoft’s statement and quote some key points. You can read the full statement here.
Of course, the statement starts with Ubisoft thanking their fans, and stating that they had always dreamt to make a game in the franchise set in feudal Japan. They also pointed out that they received positive and negative reactions alike, and in this particular case, they have to make some clarifications.
In Ubisoft’s own words:
“Assassin’s Creed Shadows is first and foremost, designed to be an entertaining video game that tells a compelling, historical fiction set in Feudal Japan. “
Ubisoft also explains that they put a lot of effort in making an ‘immersive and respectful representation’ of the era, and that included working extensively with many researchers and consultants, as well as their colleagues at Ubisoft’s studios in Tokyo and Osaka.
But the Assassin’s Creed games are not intended to be “factual representations of history or historical characters.” As they put it, the games are intended to spark curiosity about historical settings. But now let’s cut to the chase.
Here’s what Ubisoft said about Yasuke:
“While Yasuke is depicted as a samurai in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we acknowledge that this is a matter of debate and discussion. We have woven this carefully into our narrative and with our other lead character, the Japanese shinobi Naoe, who is equally important in the game, our dual protagonists provide players with different gameplay styles.”
Of course, a lot of Assassin’s Creed Shadows marketing suggested that Yasuke was a samurai. Subsequently, Ubisoft gave this apology:
“We acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community. For this, we sincerely apologize.
All game footage presented so far is in development and the game will keep evolving until launch.”
If we were honest about this, there is a certain level of absurdity to the controversy now surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows. None of the previous Assassin’s Creed games were subject to this much scrutiny.
Somehow, Ubisoft didn’t get in trouble for its depiction of historically significant Shia figures like Rashid ad-Din Sinan (the Old Man of the Mountain) in as far back as the original game. I’m sure longtime fans can namedrop their favorite inaccurate depictions of historical characters of choice as well.
Perhaps we can get some insight on this from influencer Genki, an expat sharing news from his current residence in Japan. Genki shared this on Twitter, which we will take to be his understanding from seeing how Japanese reacted online, and perhaps his own personal experience there as well:
“The main reason Japanese people seem to be angry is because they have been lead to believe that westerners see Japan as a major player in black slave ownership/ trade, coupled with the over exaggeration of Yasuke as misrepresenting Japanese history.”
Ubisoft’s apology seems to be more informed by what they did learn from their Japanese colleagues, than how people outside Japan and are not Japanese reacted. Ubisoft also shared a Japanese language version of this statement to the public.
Based on what Ubisoft has promised, it does not seem likely that the game will receive major changes such as removing Yasuke from the game entirely. It may more be a matter of fixing the writing so that they can handle this depiction with the nuance it requires. They very clearly did not say there would be any delay, at least not in this statement.
If everything stays as is, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be releasing on November 15, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Windows via Steam, and the Mac App Store.
