Following Ubisoft’s statement to Japanese gamers about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, speculation has run rampant on why Ubisoft even made the statement. Now, it seems we have a small peek into the window of what the Japanese government thinks.
When we reported the statement, we did also point out the strange disparity in how Ubisoft didn’t feel pressure to say similar things about potential historical inaccuracies in any of the other Assassin’s Creed games, or the franchise as a whole.
Indeed, the premise that the franchise leans on – that the Order of Assassins and the Templar Knights are secret societies that predate Islam and Roman Catholicism, and they are fighting over artifacts left behind by a species who created humanity – well, that’s just completely ridiculous.
Playing the Assassin’s Creed franchise as a whole has always been a broad exercise in suspension of disbelief. As Ubisoft has said before, the games are intended to be fictional, and they do not intend any prejudice or disrespect to anyone. They have also always pointed out that they get their developers from all creeds and races.
As reported by GamesRadar, a Japanese politician apparently attempted to use Ubisoft’s action to get some attention for himself. A member of the NHK Party (not related to the TV broadcaster NHK) named Satoshi Hamada asked the Japan’s government ministries to comment on what he alleges were historical inaccuracies in the game.
The Japanese education ministry did not criticize or even name Ubisoft or Assassin’s Creed Shadows, simply stating that that “careful handling is required if there are suspicions of content that violates public order and morals.” For their part, the Japanese foreign ministry said it wasn’t their concern at all.
If Japan’s government finds that there is any issues with Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ content, we should find out soon enough. There is, of course, an agency whose job is to review video games for publication in Japan, and they put ratings for these games, like the ESRB does in America.
Japan’s CERO, short for Computer Entertainment Rating Organization, has and can ban games from release in Japan. They did it to Dead Space, and as we reported in 2022, they did it to The Callisto Protocol.
But online noise can often be misleading on how countries outside the West look at video games. As we reported all the way back in 2015, Tekken head Katsuhiro Harada had to tell fans to calm down, as misinformation spread that a TRO was filed in the Philippines to block the Tekken 7 character, Josie Rizal. Some gamers never truly got clarification on this misunderstanding, but if you may remember, there was ultimately no action taken to stop Josie from appearing in the game.
Ubisoft themselves stated they would be working to address any potential issues, and we are certain they were thinking of CERO, and feedback from their Japanese developers, more than anything else. If they do everything right, Assassin’s Creed Shadows should release in Japan at the same time as the rest of the world, on November 12, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows via Assassin’s Creed Infinity.
