Canceled Assassin's Creed game was set in post-Civil War America, but was reportedly axed due to Assassin's Creed Shadows Yasuke backlash and US political climate: "Too political in a country too unstable"

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"They are making more and more decisions to maintain the political 'status quo' and take no stand"

Assassin's Creed Shadows
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

According to a new report, Ubisoft canceled an Assassin's Creed game in 2024 that would've been set during and after the American Civil War. The game would've had you play as a Black man and former slave who joins the assassin's order and fights enemies, including the Ku Klux Klan, and was reportedly canceled because Ubisoft leadership believed the game dealt with topics that would be too politically sensitive.

The game was canceled in 2024, shortly before the July 13 assassination attempt on then-candidate for US presidency Donald Trump, according to a report from Game File (paid article link), which cites interviews with five current and former Ubisoft employees.

"Leadership decisions impact developers’ creative ambitions and motivations," according to another developer cited in the report.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.

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