Marc-Alexis Côté is as legitimate an Assassin’s Creed veteran as one can get. Having been at Ubisoft for nearly 20 years, he has worked at essentially every mainline title in the series since Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, all the way back in 2010. His LinkedIn indicates that he is now Vice President Executive Producer for the franchise since March 2022.
As reported by Eurogamer, Côté gave a new speech at an event organized by BAFTA defending Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and really, the Assassin’s Creed franchise as a whole, in the midst of this atmosphere where the game and its dev team has faced harsh criticism.
This speech is particularly noteworthy as Côté appears to have given a passionate, sincere defense than what the company’s official press release, and his own boss Yves Guillemot, were able to provide the public. And as we had noted, it’s because he is one of the actual developers in the trenches. Côté helped shape the Assassin’s Creed franchise to what it is today.
The whole speech is worth recounting, but we will cut straight to the point. After revealing that Ubisoft received criticism not only for their depiction of Yasuke, but also for having the other playable character, Naoe, be a woman, Côté said this:
“So while both Naoe and Yasuke’s stories are works of historical fiction, they reflect the collision of different worlds, cultures and roles, and their inclusion is precisely the kind of narrative that Assassin’s Creed seeks to tell, one that reflects the complexity and interconnectedness of our shared history.
And this isn’t new ground for the franchise. From Altaïr to Aveline de Grandpré to Ratonhnhaké:ton [the protagonists of Assassin’s Creed 1, Liberation and Assassin’s Creed 3 respectively], we’ve consistently introduced protagonists from diverse racial, ethnic and gender identities.
History is inherently diverse, and so is Assassin’s Creed and the stories we tell. So to be clear, our commitment to inclusivity is grounded in historical authenticity and respect for diverse perspectives, not driven by modern agendas.”
This cuts, not only to the heart of the debate around Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but about the Assassin’s Creed franchise itself. Ubisoft demanded an immense suspension of disbelief when they told gamers to accept that a French man in modern day would save the world by entering some virtual world to roleplay as a long dead Arab mercenary.
And that suspension was stretched even further, when we were asked to accept that the Assassins and Templars had both established ancient secret societies, that were fighting for even longer than when Christianity and Islam had existed, for things that had nothing to do with their religions.
But those real fans of Assassin’s Creed stuck by the franchise for the past 17 years, as Ubisoft had molded it to a big, annualized AAA, and one of the greatest historical fiction media franchises in the world today. Along the way, Ubisoft realized that they had been teaching their players history all along, and they started to take that seriously, too.
So, part of the controversy around Assassin’s Creed Shadows was that it seemed like they were, for once, failing to strike that balance between fiction and versimilitude. Côté acknowledged the legitimate criticism, but then said this:
“The current climate is tough on our creative teams. They face lies, half-truths and personal attacks online. When the work they pour their hearts into is twisted into a symbol of division, it’s not just disheartening, it can be devastating.
What keeps me going is the resilience born out of conviction that I see in our teams every day. I am especially proud of the Shadows team for staying true to their creative vision and the core tenets of Assassin’s Creed.”
If we had been worried previously that Ubisoft management had meddled too much in Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ development, Côté’s statements seems to reassure us to worry no more. The developers who told their bosses they had to delay the game got their way, and it looks like they are actually in charge now.
In the precarious position Ubisoft finds itself in today, it cannot afford to get Assassin’s Creed Shadows wrong. Their developers are signaling to us now that they intend to right the ship. They’re also telling us they know who their real fans and loyal players are, and that they’re going to get the game right for them.
