Ubisoft Grovels
You know you done screwed up when you have to apologize to an entire country.
Ubisoft has issued a non-apology apology to the nation of Japan for a game they have in late development. Not a group, not a subset of otaku, not an ethnic minority. They got on their knees before all of the sons and daughters of Nippon. And then tried to avoid apologizing while having to grovel. My comments are italicized.
To our esteemed Japanese community—a message from the Assassin’s Creed Shadows development team.
First, we want to express our heartfelt thanks for all your support for the Assassin’s Creed series which now has its own history spanning almost 20 years. Over this time, we have explored various settings, time periods, and characters, from an Assassin during the Third Crusade to a Viking in 9th century England, and countless more.
And somehow we restrained ourselves from inserting ethnic improbabilities into those settings. Until now.
For many of our team, creating an Assassin’s Creed game set in Feudal Japan has been a long-cherished dream.
You actually had one back in 2015 when you released concept art that showed two Japanese men. A samurai and a ninja. We would like that game, please.
Since the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we have received many positive reactions,
From the bot farms, you hired. Yes. Those of us who aren’t on your payroll were less encouraging as I recall.
but also some criticism including from you, our Japanese players.
Because you got literally every… single… thing… wrong with the Sengoku period. You couldn’t even get the architecture right. Were there any Japanese people working on this project at all?
Ones named Kenji and not Kevin I mean?
We share your passion for history and deeply respect your care for the historical and cultural integrity of your rich heritage.
Do you indeed? Given the gargantuan size of this fuckup, a little proof beyond your word of honor is now required.
We would like to address a few points to clarify our intentions and creative decisions:
Overall Authenticity efforts:
We have put significant effort into ensuring an immersive and respectful representation of Feudal Japan.
You’re lying. It was lazy, hackneyed and above all Woke. That was always your primary objective. You had no one on your staff that could read Japanese or you wouldn’t have copied the Kanji of the flag of a reenactment society. Your only historical research was skimming Pinterest and fawning over the book of a conman and fabulist who wafted mountains of history into existence from a few whisps of mist. Four paragraphs in history texts are all that support the existence of Yasuke at all.
I don’t know where in hell that guy got the idea that Japan had a thriving African slave trade and plantation system. I assure you, if Japan had one thing it had enough of, it was manual labor.
More importantly, how could you possibly be stupid enough to believe in something that was clearly utter bullshit?
However, our intention has never been to present any of our Assassin’s Creed games, including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, as factual representations of history, or historical characters. Instead, we aim to spark curiosity and encourage players to explore and learn more about the historical settings we get inspired by.
Well, Japan has been exploring the hell out of the guy whose book you presented as factual history. You managed that. But please don’t for one second pretend you did this to Japan out of love and respect for its past. You did it because you want to alter its history, that is the only kind of history you are now interested in. The Lysenkoist varity.
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.
You Woke retards should have taken a page out of Shogun’s playbook. The Japanese are a lot more easygoing about alterations to history when you make plain that it’s fictional.
If as massive for instance Yasuke the gay, black Samurai was the devoted vessel of say, “Lord Goroda” instead of “Lord Nobunaga,” you probably would have been fine.
But that wouldn’t have served your real objective at all. The alteration of history to fit a Woke narrative. You thought you could get away with and you didn’t.
Our team extensively collaborated with external consultants, historians, researchers, and internal teams at Ubisoft Japan to inform our creative choices.
We saw a picture on Pinterest and it seemed good enough to us.
Despite these sustained efforts, we acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community.
Ya think?
For this, we sincerely apologize. All game footage presented so far is in development and the game will keep evolving until launch. Based on the constructive criticism we have received, we will continue our efforts until we put this game into your hands – and beyond.
It’s a third-person game and it launches in November, there is no way on Earth you guys can scrap Yasuke at this point. It has to go as is.
Although, I did love the “and beyond” bit. “Please don’t actually buy our game pay for the monthly live service instead.
We also want to clarify that while we have been consulting with many people throughout the development process, they are in no way responsible for the decisions that are taken by the creative teams in the interests of gameplay and entertainment.
We did it but we refuse to take the blame for it.
Consequently, we respectfully request that any criticism not be directed at our collaborators, both internal and external.
Stop being mean to us! And stop accusing of us things we did!
The rest is just word salad that repeats points they already made and then it’s signed as Development Team, no individual put his/her/xyr name to this. The ridiculous part is that the Japanese as a whole like when gaijin take a genuine interest in their history and culture. Sucker Punch is an American gaming studio and the Japanese were head over heels about Ghost of Tsushima.
The only people that were mad about it were Woketards on Twitter who were yelling about cultural appropriation. Yeah, they were mostly white. This may have given a little too much encouragement to Ubisoft.
Ubisoft really needs a win with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Skull and Bones was a disaster, It’s questionable if Avatar Frontiers of Pandora made bank or not. The Prince of Persia side scroller probably made a profit but $15 million won’t offset recent performance issues.
If Assassin’s Creed Shadows bombs, look for Ubisoft to get bought up.
