A petition to cancel Assassin’s Creed Shadows has reached 38,000 names in Japan

Ever since Ubisoft debuted Assassin’s Creed Shadows in May, there has been a predictable wave of online backlash against the game’s two protagonists.

The next entry in the series is set in feudal Japan and is led by an African samurai Yasuke, a real historical figure, and a fictional female shinobi named Naoe. In certain circles, this provoked the typical reaction you’d expect, with accusations of forced diversity.

A petition created by Japanese gamers has now attracted over 38,000 signatures, though their complaint is more about how samurai are portrayed in the game as a whole.

As noted in a Change.org petition by creator Shimizu Toru (via Google Translate), “Lack of historical accuracy and cultural respect has recently been a serious concern regarding game developer Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows game.

“The game is based on Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that samurai were the upper class of the warrior class and were supposed to be ‘gokenin’ or servants of nobles.”

The description later states that “Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of the samurai” and adds, “This is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history and may also be linked to Asian racism.” We call on Ubisoft to immediately cancel the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and show honest research and respect for Japanese history and culture.”

At the time of writing, the petition has received over 38,000 signatures since its creation two weeks ago.

It’s hard to take any complaints about historical inaccuracies in Assassin’s Creed seriously given how silly the series has always been – between playing out memories of dead ancestors through a virtual reality machine, controlling eagles, or the part in Assassin’s Creed 2 where you summon clones with a magic apple.

It’s still unclear how Yasuke fits into the overall narrative of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but the series has often playfully altered history with familiar characters. Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine, which he designed but never actually built, was created for a flight sequence in Assassin’s Creed 2, for example.

Assassin’s Creed boss Marc-Alexis Côté recently responded to the backlash surrounding Yasuke in an interview with Game File, calling out Elon Musk specifically for “feeding hate” online.

After Musk posted that “DEI is killing the arts,” referring to the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion acronym, Côté said, “What Elon is saying is not the game we’re building. People will have to play the game for themselves. And if they’re not convinced by what we’re doing in the first 11 minutes and 47 seconds, we can discuss it.”

If anything, it’s probably the portrayal of ninjas in the game, and pop culture in general, that is the most inaccurate, as they were primarily spies and very rarely assassins. But the petition does not mention that.

There is some debate as to exactly what role Yasuke played in Japanese history, but he was certainly a favorite vassal of Oda Nobunaga, and while it is unclear whether he was a full samurai, he was close enough that he is still one of the most authentic representations of historical history. character in the series.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will launch on November 15, 2024 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.