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At the annual Paris Games Week trade fair, Ubisoft gave a surprising presentation explaining how it responded to the backlash against Assassin's Creed Shadows. In a dramatic video, Ubisoft says it worked to fire up hardcore Assassin's Creed fans to defend the game in what CEO Yves Guillemot describes as a "battle" to prove it's "more of a video game than a message."
"What happens when a legendary franchise reveals one of its most anticipated experiences?" a narrator in the video, which was transcribed by Game File (paid article link), asks. "Only to become the game everyone loves to hate? When conversation shifts from gameplay to ideology? When everything you say only adds fuel to the fire?"
The video continues: "In September 2024, we had our backs against the wall, and that’s when it clicked. To get out of the corner, we had to stop focusing on those who hated us. We had to start firing up our allies. So we stopped trying to win the argument, and leaned on what had carried us for 18 years: The Assassin’s Creed brand."
To that end, Ubisoft delayed the game to "polish, optimize, and reach the high standards fans expect," while simultaneously releasing extensive preview materials that focused on elements such as stealth, leaps of faith, and lore, intended to appeal to hardcore fans.
"Fans came back, conversations started shifting, and everyone who built, played, and loved this game could be proud again. With our allies beside us, we found confidence again: To stand tall, to take risks, to speak up, even against the loudest haters."
The video does not acknowledge the source of that backlash – for one, a racist response to the game's Black co-protagonist – as it promotes the publisher's ability to overcome the haters. A Ubisoft representative tells Game File that the video may also eventually be aired for Ubisoft employees, which makes the rah-rah vibe a little more understandable.
In remarks after the video, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said, "We were initially surprised by the extent of the attacks. And we quickly realized that it was a battle, a battle with our fans, to demonstrate that we were, in fact, more of a video game than a message." Guillemot's words were originally in French, but translated by Game File and run by Ubisoft.
Well, I guess Ubisoft is nothing if not consistent, going back to the days when it insisted games about the destruction of Washington DC and rural American doomsday cults were not "political." But if those games weren't political, surely the canceled Civil War Assassin's Creed game wouldn't have been, either. The lesson Ubisoft seems to have learned from all this is that people just don't want to think too much about women or people of color.
Fans are "kind of caught between 'I want to play, and what interests me is self-expression within a game' and 'there is a cultural message that comes with the video game,'" as Guillemot sees it. He adds, "our goal is really to be able to ensure that our fans discover and defend what they expect from our games."
In the end, Guillemot believes, "it very quickly eliminated the fights, which were just fake fights."
