Assassin's Creed Shadows releases in just under 2 months' time, and the discourse around this game is anything but favorable for Ubisoft. While some titles are doing well despite concerns and controversy, rumors regarding chaos behind the scenes at Ubisoft continue to emerge, the latest coming from Japanese YouTuber and critic of Assassin's Creed Shadows, Shohei Kondo.
Mr. Kondo was recently contacted by a Ubisoft insider who had a lot to say regarding many of the controversial decisions that Ubisoft made while developing Shadows. If this insider is to be believed, it would seem that much of the lack of cultural knowledge and blatant disrespect for Japan's history came from a place of sheer ignorance, rather than malice. The insider had much to say regarding recent video clips showing Yasuke, the "black samurai," butchering civilians and destroying sacred objects.
"I wanted to give you some insight into the destroyed Shrine situation," he began. "As a developer in video games, objects are typically called 'props.' This Shrine with the mirror consists of one or multiple props set together. By default, all props are static or non-destructive because making them destructible requires extra work. You have to create sound and visual effects for the moment it breaks along with specific animations."
"It's an extra costly process. Usually in games, destructible objects are limited to those more likely to be in the player's path, like a lamp post in GTA that you can destroy by hitting it. The first mistake was even considering these Shrine items as something cool to break. Doing so encourages players to fight inside shrines. I also noticed that many enemies are placed inside Japanese gardens or on the exterior of temples."
"The second mistake was failing to correct this during the backlash phase when they claimed they would be more careful in respecting Japanese culture. Transforming a destructible prop into a non-destructible one is just a click or two on a developer's computer. This means they had not considered even for a second how religiously significant this item actually is. I don't think people like you should call them 'evil,' they are just very ignorant and not well educated on the subject and not thorough enough in their work."
He also addressed what the internal messaging was like regarding the controversy over this game.
"Internally at Ubisoft, just before Christmas we received a worldwide communication regarding the controversy surrounding the game. In an effort to reassure us, they stated that they had analyzed all the complaints online. 'It is important that we don't get discouraged by this noise. We have taken the time to analyze this situation. They represent a small yet vocal minority and it is important to differentiate between the haters and those who provide constructive feedback.' Not working on this project myself, I still wonder what they consider constructive feedback and how they address it. So, I was not reassured as they had hoped. We were instructed not to comment on these attacks and to ignore them from the outside."
"I personally feel feel really uncomfortable and ashamed to work for a company that allowed such a debate to happen. I truly regret the lack of serious preparation in depicting the Japanese setting and the failure to recognize content that could lead to cultural incidents. The fact that they secretly hid and fixed the worst mistakes before release without taking responsibility or admitting their errors feels like the worst part to me. I'll conclude my answer with a prime example of why Ubisoft completely deserves the backlash."
"Assassins Creed Shadows is censored in Japan to remove beheadings and limb amputation. The late-stage censorship of certain aspects of the game such as dismemberment in the Japanese version further reinforces my belief that Ubisoft did not take the necessary steps to anticipate such issues. I have experience with C.E.R.O's game rating process and so does Ubisoft. We are supposed to work with them during a milestone called the age rating phase, which takes place around the time the game enters its beta stage."
"For Assassin's Creed Shadows, this should have happened at least 6 to 8 months ago. The fact that this level of violence passed C.E.R.O.'s checks at that stage suggests that Ubisoft either failed to provide enough examples and data for a proper analysis or made last-minute design changes. While many other games are allowed to depict dismemberment in Japan, I'm fairly confident that C.E.R.O restrictions mainly apply to extreme violence against innocent or defenseless individuals, such as priests or civilian women. This is a well-known fact in the industry and Ubisoft should have anticipated this issue months ago."
The insider would then go on to explain the level of fear that employees at Ubisoft exist at, due to the company's obsession with things like DEI, which prevents staff from offering criticism, lest they be labeled as "racist."
"I think most employees are quite uncomfortable giving their personal opinions on Ubisoft's version of Yasuke, even during a coffee break in the office. They are afraid of being accused of racism in this very DEI-driven society. Also, we have been seeing the Ubisoft backlash online for years. So it's hard for most of us to really focus on just one case within this whole series of backlashes. This is basically the reason I wanted to talk to you and help your opinion get the support I felt it deserved."
The insider also would offer their own thoughts regarding the state of Ubisoft and the decline in the quality of their products.
"I personally see this recent controversy surrounding Ubisoft as having two very distinct origins. The first is the overall decline in the quality and polish of Ubisoft's games over the last decade. Apart from a few exceptions, you can objectively see this through Metacritic scores, as well as general community feedback online and often sales numbers. Some older fans of Ubisoft titles no longer feel that the new games are as creative and enjoyable as they used to be. There is a well-documented case of Ubisoft fatigue that many players suffer from, so older fans feel hurt and miss the good old days."
"In some cases, the hate comes from past love. Many players today grew up playing Ubisoft games and loved them as kids. This sentiment is also shared by many employees and I'll try to explain why. In the last decade, while I was an employee at Ubisoft myself, I saw many colleagues lose a significant part of their motivation. Furthermore, Ubisoft has an increasingly concerning turnover rate. Senior and talented developers are leaving for other companies and being replaced by less experienced employees. Very recently, the producer of AC Shadows himself revealed that half his team has never released a game before."
While most people already know by now that Ubisoft is in a dire situation after having several financial disasters in 2024, this insider just reaffirms that Ubisoft is likely never going to be able to correct course in time to avoid utter ruin.