Assassin’s Creed Shadows is fiction, Ubisoft reiterates after Yasuke debate

Publisher apologizes to the Japanese community for causing concerns

Ubisoft

Ubisoft posted a lengthy statement regarding Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which is directed at the series’ Japanese fans. In this message, the publisher reiterated that Assassin’s Creed was never and still is not intended as an accurate portrayal of history, and is indeed merely fiction.

“While we strive for authenticity in everything that we do,” the team wrote, “Assassin’s Creed games are works of fiction inspired by real historical events and figures.” 

As a reminder, all Assassin’s Creed games show a message emphasizing this whenever you start them up, similar to many historical movies or TV shows.

Addressing the elephant in the room, Ubisoft continued: “From its inception, the series has taken creative license and incorporated fantasy elements to craft engaging and immersive experiences. The representation of Yasuke in our game is an illustration of this. His unique and mysterious life made him an ideal candidate to tell an Assassin’s Creed story with the setting of Feudal Japan as a backdrop.”

“While Yasuke is depicted as a samurai in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we acknowledge that this is a matter of debate and discussion,” the message went on. “We have woven this carefully into our narrative and with our other lead character, the Japanese shinobi Naoe, who is equally important in the game, our dual protagonists provide players with different gameplay styles.”

The reveal of Yasuke as a playable protagonist of the game led to a heated debate online about the representation of culture and history in the title – critics argue that having the only playable samurai in the game be of African instead of Japanese origin is a slap in the face for Japanese history, the other side argues that it’s no problem at all, since Yasuke is undoubtedly part of Japanese history regardless of his origin. Another point of discussion is whether Yasuke was indeed a real samurai or not, which is a point Ubisoft touched upon in its message.

Some Japanese fans also feared that Yasuke’s presence in the game misrepresented Japan’s history in regards to slavery, which generally did not involve the trade of Africans.

Ubisoft’s statement contained an apology to the Japanese community for having caused such concerns: “Despite these sustained efforts, we acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community. For this, we sincerely apologize.”

The publisher emphasized that all footage of the game shown so far is “in development and the game will keep evolving until launch,” perhaps indicating that some changes will be made.