AC Shadows Ignoring Historical Accuracy For Crowd Satisfaction

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Abiyan

At Tech4gamers, I cover all sorts of gaming news. Whether it’s a leak of any upcoming game or an update, an announcement, or a rumour, I like to write about it all. Over the weekend, I sit and write features where I talk about games that I miss or want to see return.

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I was quite excited when Assassin’s Creed Shadow was first announced. Although Ubisoft had disappointed me several times, I was hopeful that its upcoming release would finally improve things.

While the idea of Assassin’s Creed Shadow taking place in Japan was exciting, a huge controversy began when it was revealed that the developers had somewhat misrepresented Japanese culture.

From the main character to the open-world setting, most of it seems far from historically accurate, which made me realize something. Ubisoft is only chasing after crowd satisfaction and doesn’t care much about historical accuracy, which is disappointing for a massive publisher.

Why it matters: Ghost of Tshunima has proven in the past that accurate depictions of history and culture should be the biggest focus for such an experience.

Research Falls Short In Quality, And It’s Hard To Ignore

While Ubisoft recently claimed that it loves to make its titles historically accurate, that the studio takes pride in this process, and that it spends a lot of time on research, I can’t understand how it thought this approach was a good idea.

Yasuke was indeed an actual figure of African origin in Japanese history; his story is not entirely fiction. He was Oda Nobunaga’s retainer from the Sengoku period but was never rewarded with samurai status.

Although no actual history proves Yasuke was rewarded with samurai status, Assassin’s Creed Shadows goes the opposite route and portrays Yasuke as a legendary samurai with great status.

While this was already enough to earn criticism from Japanese audiences, Ubisoft went ahead and included LGBTQ+ elements in the RPG, further exacerbating the current controversy.

If this wasn’t enough, there are also geographical mistakes in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, as some of the temples shown in the game are from the Edo period, which came years after Yasuke’s life.

All these things show that Ubisoft’s research was far from thorough. This was a complete failure on the studio’s part since the setting needed to be treated carefully because of the fan demand.

Ubisoft Mixing Up Its Words

What has been really surprising for me is that a massive publisher like Ubisoft doesn’t know how to deal with criticism.

Soon after the game received negativity for its take on Japanese history, the developer stated that it didn’t care much about historical accuracy and that Assassin’s Creed Shadows was developed solely for fun.

However, it didn’t take fans long to dig up past statements where a developer proudly boasted the historical accuracy of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Needless to say, both statements directly contradicted each other.

The team’s own words being contradictory tells me everything I need to know. Ubisoft may have high expectations for this release, but I’m not ruling out the chances of a major flop.

Ubisoft Doesn’t Care About History

Amid the controversy, a former Ubisoft developer claimed that the studio rejected his historically accurate pitch for a progressive narrative, which makes me wonder why the team would even discuss historical accuracy.

Ultimately, all I have seen or heard about the title has been negative. From one of the most anticipated releases of the year, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has gone downhill to nothing but another game in 2024.

I hope that Ubisoft learns the right lessons from this controversy. A series like Assassin’s Creed needs to be well thought out and represent its historical background in a meaningful manner. Chasing crowd satisfaction is one thing, but the latest entry seems to have done more harm than good for the series.

Abiyan

[News Reporter]

Abiyan is on track to complete his Computer Science bachelor’s degree. His enthusiasm for writing and gaming motivates him to keep readers and gamers updated with the latest information from the industry. In his free time, Abiyan enjoys playing Dota 2 and Rocket League. Abiyan has also been cited in reputed websites such as Kitguru, Comicbook, GamingBible, Eurogamer and Gamingbolt.