Developers behind Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the upcoming Assassin’s Creed set in Feudal Japan, released a statement on Tuesday that addressed blowback to the game, which seems to be largely driven by the inclusion of Yasuke, a Black samurai, as one of two playable characters.
In its statement, Ubisoft developers specifically addressed “our Japanese players,” who have criticized the game for claimed historical inaccuracies and a flub that included Chinese subtitles in a video for Assassin’s Creed Shadows. “We acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community,” developers said in a statement. “For this, we sincerely apologize.”
But developers at Ubisoft also stressed that while they have “put significant effort into ensuring an immersive and respectful representation of Feudal Japan,” the developers’ “intention has never been to present any of our Assassin’s Creed games, including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, as factual representations of history, or historical characters.”
“Assassin’s Creed Shadows is first and foremost designed to be an entertaining video game that tells a compelling, historical fiction set in Feudal Japan,” Ubisoft explained. “Our team extensively collaborated with external consultants, historians, researchers, and internal teams at Ubisoft Japan to inform our creative choices.”
At the heart of the minor controversy around Assassin’s Creed Shadows are its playable characters: Yasuke, a Black samurai, and Naoe, a Japanese shinobi. Yasuke’s position as a samurai has been a source of some debate, and given an apparent lack of historical documentation on the man, a servant of Oda Nobunaga, some have taken issue with Ubisoft’s game naming him a samurai.
However, a recent, widely shared post from Japanese historian Yu Hirayama argues that Yasuke was indeed granted samurai status by Nobunaga. Hirayama cites Yasuke’s stipend, housing, and sword afforded him by Nobunaga, but acknowledges that Nobunaga’s enemies did not view Yasuke as a samurai.
Regardless of Yasuke’s official title in Japanese history, Ubisoft stressed that it’s not making a history book, but a piece of fiction. How in-game characters react to Yasuke as a samurai is important to the plot of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, developers said.
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. 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. 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.
Ubisoft’s statement also emphasizes that it has “extensively collaborated with external consultants, historians, researchers, and internal teams at Ubisoft Japan to inform our creative choices,” but that those people “are in no way responsible for the decisions that are taken by the creative teams in the interests of gameplay and entertainment. Consequently, we respectfully request that any criticism not be directed at our collaborators, both internal and external.”
That request is likely an attempt to curtail further harassment aimed at external agencies that work with game companies like Ubisoft to assess and improve upon cultural representation in games. Earlier this year, video game consultants at Sweet Baby Inc. saw many of its current and former employees become targets of harassment over complaints that the agency was promoting “forced” diversity in gaming.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming to Mac, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Nov. 15.