Ubisoft Apologizes To Fans For Assassin’s Creed Shadows Backlash

The Ubisoft development team behind the production of Assassin’s Creed Shadows has issued a statement today via X apologizing for potential historical inaccuracies.

The longwinded apology aims to explain the development team’s stance on how they produce their games and that the Assassin’s Creed series (not just Assassin’s Creed Shadows ) are works of historical fiction, loosely using the period, setting, and characters of the period to tell different stories. This is due to ongoing fan backlash, potentially around the inclusion of the Sekigahara Teppo-tai flag — a Japanese historical re-enactment group — not historically from the period of Shadows . The apology from the official Assassin’s Creed ac count can be read below.

In the four-page apology, Ubisoft mentions that Assassin’s Creed Shadows follows how every other Assassin’s Creed title has been made, with characters from that period being used loosely to advance a fictional narrative centred around the titular Assassin’s group.

The statement reads, “While we strive for authenticity in everything that we do, Assassin’s Creed games are works of fiction inspired by real historical events and figures… While Yasuke is depicted as a samurai in Assassin’s Creed Shadows , we acknowledge that this is a matter of debate and discussion… We greatly value your feedback and encourage you to continue sharing your thoughts.” The dev team signs off with another acknowledgement, that they will likely be unable to meet “everyone’s” demands with Shadows .

The Sekigahara Teppo-tai flag issue started back at the begin ning of July when Ubisoft initially apologized for the flag’s inclusion in the game (reported then by Siliconera). Ubisoft’s apology then said, “We were given the opportunity to apologize to the group, and they accepted. Except for its inclusion in the Collector’s Edition art book, the artwork will not be used or distributed beyond this date. We deeply apologize for this matter,” on July 3.

The group was allegedly unsatisfied with the response and elected to take it up with the support team further, but that has also appeared to be resolved. The member who goes by @matchlock_kage on X , shared the final update on the flag’s inclusion in Shadows .

He wrote (loosely translated by Google) “Today, I received a response from Ubisoft regarding the inclusion in the artbook. It seems that the image I originally inquired about (the image with the hanging head) has been deleted. The other image was not attached and pointed out, and the flag is small enough that it is difficult to distinguish in the artbook – It seems to be included in the list, but I didn’t attach a file to point this out, and the image is small and difficult to distinguish, so I’ll just have to accept it as a brown flag.” This was the member’s last posting on the matter.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues to face internet backlash and will likely continue to until the title finally launches on November 12, 2024.