Japanese Gamers Start Petition to Cancel Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Video Games

It’s been a rocky road for Assassin’s Creed Shadows since the first trailer was released. The reveal that one of the game’s two leads – and the only male lead in a game series that, let’s not kid ourselves, is geared towards guys – was a black man, as opposed to Japanese, rubbed many the wrong way and smacked of disrespect to Japanese culture and a decision that was obviously done for pandering purposes. Then came reports that much of the game’s architecture and design was based on Chinese culture and history, not Japanese, which developer Ubisoft effectively admitted to when they promised to fix this problem. And as if that wasn’t enough, the flag of a Japanese battle reenactment group was spotted in the game – a flag that did not exist in feudal Japan, when the game is set, and for which Ubisoft did not ask for permission to use. There was already a negative reaction from Japanese gamers, and now, that has manifested in a Japanese petition to cancel the game’s release.

Japanese have started a petition to cancel Assassin's Creed Shadows. https://t.co/AkBKLvx3ZH pic.twitter.com/LsfZBRJpgR

— Grummz (@Grummz) July 1, 2024

Savvy Artist had the best response to this:

I was assured that every Japanese account complaining about the game was actually an American playing pretend.

— Savvy | Artist (@MadamSavvy) July 1, 2024

Despite all those claims and the predictable onslaught of defensive articles from games journalists, Japanese gamers seem mighty pissed at Assassin’s Creed Shadows. And I don’t blame them; it looks like Ubisoft picked Japan out of a hat and decided to make changes to their culture based on identity politics (or, in the case of the architecture, just plain sloth). Look at the history of Assassin’s Creed games; the ones taking place in the Middle East had a Middle Eastern hero, the ones taking place in Italy had an Italian hero, the Viking one had a Viking hero, and so on. But now that they landed on Japan, they decided to make one of the two heroes an ethnicity other than Japanese, and a historical figure who was a foreigner to boot, and have him going around killing Japanese people (while rap music plays, because Ubisoft appears to have been intent on insulting everyone). I’m sure nothing will come of this petition, but it’s indicative of the animosity Japanese gamers feel towards Assassin’s Creed Shadows and the company whose CEO is whining about customer complaints. It’ll be interesting to see how well this game sells when it’s released, although it seems they can write off the Japanese market.