How quaint that just days after the intense backlash over the reveal of Ubisoft’s latest title, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the company’s shares are sharply declining.
The reveal introduced Yasuke, an African retainer/slave who served under Oda Nobunaga in Japan, as a historical figure. While this isn’t inherently a cause for concern, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will, for the first time, feature this illusive real-life historical figure as one of the games main protagonists.
Ubisoft is effectively attempting to rewrite history by promoting the narrative that Yasuke was a genuine samurai warrior, despite insufficient evidence or documentation from Japan’s most iconic historical period supporting this claim.
The limited information available about “Yasuke” indicates that he served Oda Nobunaga, likely as a sword bearer, following him around. Other details about him are relatively obscure, including the fact that he surrendered in the only significant conflict he was involved in. After the death of his master, Yasuke’s existence faded into obscurity.
Go figure. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. I, and many like me, haven’t cared about the Assassin’s Creed franchise for years. Ubisoft hasn’t produced a worthwhile game in nearly a decade.
The only reason Assassin’s Creed has regained relevance recently is due to Ubisoft’s increased DEI/ESG agenda, which pushes specific narratives, like portraying ancient Egyptians as Black.
Now, they’re “representing” the Japanese by distorting their history, forcing players to assume the role of a real-life historical figure, albeit embellished as a samurai.
In a game about infiltration and assassination, you won’t be able to play as a male shinobi; instead, you’ll play as a fictional female one and a fantasized rendition of a supposed historical figure that had barely any significance to Japan’s most documented time period, this figure just so happens to be a Black man in feudal Japan.
Aside from churning out repetitive titles in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, Ubisoft has continually produced subpar installments in the Far Cry series, another long-running title that has lost consumer interest.
Ubisoft also released the world’s first “AAAA” flop with Skull and Bones, alongside Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, which essentially plays like Far Cry. Additionally, they released The Crew Motorfest, a game made in collaboration with Sweet Baby Inc, within the past year.
Their games are shallow, repetitive, lack excitement and innovation. They’re more or less mundane open world collect-a-thons intertwined with progressive stories and narratives.
Ubisoft also plans to release Star Wars Outlaws on August 30th, but we’ve already discussed how their DEI/ESG agenda seems to have transformed an attractive actress of color into a disgusting depiction of her supposed “image” for no purpose other than to enforce the “real women” angle because all women are apparently ugly as sin. Coincidentally, ugly and androgynous women in games increases ones ESG score.
Given the poor reception of Ubisoft’s recent games, the only attention they’ve garnered is due to their depiction of a Black samurai who slaughters swarms of Japanese people in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This controversy coincides with Ubisoft’s announcement that it has missed its forecasted sales figures.
Ubisoft released its earnings report for 2023-2024 and adjusted its expectations for 2024-2025 to €275 million, significantly lower than the €376 million previously predicted by Bloomberg analysts.
This led to a sharp decline in Ubisoft’s stock on May 16, dropping from 23.35 EUR to 20.02 EUR, with a low of 19.74 EUR, a 15% decrease. The shares have since rebounded to 21.29 EUR, still nearly 9% down.
Although Ubisoft anticipated lower first-quarter bookings than expected, the company attempted to maintain optimism about its future outlook, particularly with titles like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws.
However, there was a notable lack of financial specifics mentioned regarding Skull and Bones, with Ubisoft only noting “strong engagement” and achieving the “second-best daily playtime” for a Ubisoft game.
Ubisoft is promoting Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Star Wars Outlaws as “two of the industry’s most anticipated games for the year.” However, both titles are encountering substantial resistance from gamers, largely due to their push for “diversification” and uglification alongside cultural appropriation.
Trailers for Star Wars Outlaws have received a flood of dislikes, far outnumbering the likes.
Similarly, every reveal trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows has faced intense backlash in terms of reception. From the English to the Japanese trailer, every single one has been overwhelmingly disliked.
It’s remarkable that Ubisoft’s shares plummeted by over 10% almost immediately after the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, a highly anticipated game for many fans of the franchise longing for a setting in Japan.
However, instead of delivering a rich narrative set in feudal Japan, Ubisoft chose to portray Yasuke as a meat shield, dismissing criticism as racism. Many argue that this misrepresented depiction is essentially black-washing Japan’s storied history, while others feel it disrespects the cultural and historical context of the setting.
Similar to the collaboration between DEI/ESG pushers at Sweet Baby Inc and mainstream media outlets, along with so-called “professional” journalists, the usual defenders are already rallying behind Ubisoft.
For instance, IGN published an article titled “Let’s Not Pretend We’re Mad the New Assassin’s Creed Shadows Samurai Isn’t Asian,” scolding Asian gamers for expecting a samurai to be Japanese. According to the piece, the issue isn’t Ubisoft appropriating another culture and altering history which it claims it isn’t doing but rather the perception that Japanese samurai are exclusively Japanese.
Make no mistake, there were foreign born samurai warriors such as William Adams, the first foreign-born weeaboo. However unlike Yasuke there’s sufficient historical evidence that actually supports such claims that William Adams was indeed honored as a samurai, whereas the insignificant contributions made by “Yasuke” more or less boil down to the man being a slave slash servant and nothing else.
A servant who appeared to be paraded around unclothed for the sake of entertainment.
Meanwhile, The Gaymer took a different stance, acknowledging that Yasuke, the Black protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, likely wasn’t a samurai. However, they argued that this detail doesn’t matter because Assassin’s Creed was never a franchise about historically accuracy, proclaiming those who desire authenticity as being inherently racist.
Ironically, Jade King, who is not Japanese, points out the worldwide appreciation, including in Japan, for Ghost of Tsushima. Unlike Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ghost of Tsushima actually aimed for an authentic portrayal of Japanese history, featuring a Japanese samurai as the main protagonist.
Ghost of Tsushima is now available on PC, I encourage pirating it not only because of Sony’s treatment of Japanese developers over the past decade but also because the game borrows similar mechanics from modern Assassin’s Creed titles.
These include village liberation, collecting items, upgrading your arsenal, and climbing mountains. It’s vastly superior to any recent AC title and actually represents Japan while honoring their history rather than distorting history for the sake of pushing a woke agenda.
It’s obvious as to why outlets such as IGN are shilling mercilessly for the game and its anti-Japanese sentiment, because they score exclusive interviews and press coverage of particular products. That’s what modern journalism is all about these days, PR articles, paid reviews and sponsored coverage.
IGN writers are fully aware of their actions, posing as journalists despite lacking integrity and ethics. This is evident in their promotion of Yasuke as a samurai, supported by an exclusive interview with Sachi Schmidt-Hori, a Japanese professor specializing in “Gender Studies” and a self-proclaimed expert in Japanese culture, who cites Wikipedia as a valid source.
It’s well known that Yasuke’s Wikipedia page has been the subject of a prolific edit war since the game’s reveal, aimed at spreading misinformation and falsified history.
Interestingly, Sachi Schmidt-Hori was consulted by Ubisoft regarding their egregious misrepresentation of the Sengoku period in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. There’s certainly no conflict of interest in citing the game’s own “historian” to perpetuate the myth of Yasuke as a samurai.
Moreover, Sachi’s work primarily focuses on creating literature and illustrations of historic Japan that depict romantic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys.
Perhaps Ubisoft has been confused. Instead of proclaiming Yasuke to be a samurai, it’s more believable that they actually meant he was a shotacon.
Aside from the unusual fetishes of the game’s “historian” in gender studies, IGN and other outlets are craftily gaslighting individuals into believing the false narrative of Yasuke being a Samurai.
They proclaim that he was a historical figure, which is accurate, but his significance during Japan’s most documented period was less than minimal. By saying Yasuke was “KNOWN AS” a Black Samurai rather than outright stating he “was” a Samurai, they can subtly push the narrative on consumers, making the lie more acceptable and believable without directly lying.
This is the same publication that attempted to label Capcom’s Resident Evil 5 as racist and offensive because it takes place in West Africa and has players facing swarms of infected Africans.
Ironically, in their plea to have the game’s story rewritten to be less offensive, they demanded a Black playable protagonist, completely missing the point that Resident Evil 5 is a cooperative experience featuring Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar, who is herself is African.
Ubisoft’s decision to feature Yasuke in Assassin’s Creed Shadows has undeniably stirred significant controversy, making the franchise relevant for the first time in years. However, it’s clear that their aggressive push for diversity and inclusion initiatives in their subpar products is having a negative financial impact.
They are failing to meet sales forecasts, and their profitability dwindles each quarter. This situation mirrors that of Square Enix, whose censored games are soon to be released on more platforms due to a similar decline.
One thing is clear, the controversy surrounding Assassin’s Creed Shadows has set a precedent for how game developers approach historical narratives, highlighting the need to balance creative freedom with cultural and historical accuracy.
This is evident from their recent termination of the live service game The Crew, followed by the swift removal of digital copies from owners’ libraries on their DRM platform, Ubisoft Connect. It’s doubtful this controversy will generate interest in the product, especially given Ubisoft’s inclusion of season pass content in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with prices ranging from $70 to a staggering $130.
The forced narrative of Yasuke being a samurai has little to do with genuine representation or diversity, Ubisoft’s true motive is agenda-driven. If they genuinely cared about Black representation, they would have given Adéwalé from AC: Freedom Cry his own full game.
Assassin’s Creed has traditionally featured fictional protagonists reflecting the ethnic background of the setting. For the first time, players will embody an actual historical figure, who is mythically portrayed as a Black samurai in feudal Japan.
This move seems like a feeble attempt to manipulate history, disregard Japanese culture, and deflect criticism under the guise of combating racism for those who challenge their flawed narrative, which is why I relish Ubisoft’s financial woes.
