Players Sign Petition to Cancel Assassin's Creed Shadows

Ubisoft doesn't show enough historical accuracy, according to Japanese fans.

Ubisoft

Assassin's Creed Shadows was first criticized for introducing an African protagonist in a Japan-set game, and now players accuse it of cultural disrespect and demand to cancel it.

A petition appeared on the internet, allegedly started by a Japanese player who is sure Ubisoft's upcoming game is full of historical inaccuracies, which indicates racism among the developers. In Shadows, you play either as stealthy shinobi Naoe or samurai Yasuke, who is based on a real historical figure.

According to the petition, now signed by over 36,000 people, Yasuke shown as a respected samurai is the problem worthy of shutting down Assassin's Creed Shadows.

The game is based on Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that samurai were a higher class of warrior class and should have been 'gokenin,' or servants of nobles," it says (via Insider Gaming.) "In fact, the first European to receive the title of samurai, William Adams (Miura Anjin), served Tokugawa Ieyasu as a 250 koku hatamoto. In this history, Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of samurai. 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 sincere research and respect for Japanese history and culture."

It seems like plenty of people agree with the sentiment. Interestingly, most of the comments were written in English, which makes me wonder how many Japanese players are actually angry at the developers because of this.

If you feel strongly about it, you can sign the petition too, although I highly doubt it will do anything and cancel Assassin's Creed Shadows, which will be out on November 15.

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Comments 14

Anonymous user
> Interestingly, most of the comments were written in English, which makes me wonder how many Japanese players are actually angry at the developers because of this.

Whats that supposed to mean? Assuming Japanese don't know English is even more racist
3
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
Because Ubisoft made Japan look very barren, not as beautiful as 'Ghost of Tsushima,' the Japanese people got upset
-1
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
Is there a petition to cancel the people petitioning to cancel the game. I'd sign that one.
1
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
I don't know what you saw but the petition made more than 20,000 before foreigners started to notice it.
We Japanese are not angry that Yasuke is the main character. We are angry that by placing him it became a game of black man killing Japanese. Also the way he fights is no samurai at all like smashing a club and stomping into the head.
Furthermore, there are tons of borrowed images from the net -with no permission- are found on their imageboards. This is no professional.
-1
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
I honestly don't really care if it's inaccurate or not it's a damn video game not a movie. Movies are held with higher regard in the accuracy aspect so whine all you want bit don't cancel a game becuase of one character
2
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
This is like trying to claim a movie is racist because they used artistic license to create a fictional narrative based on factual information, because it's common information that doesn't require further explanation, to help the story along in their functional world.

I bet a good portion of the people signing this petition enjoy anime and/or manga... which is entirely fictional but loosely based on Japanese history. Is that also racist? Or is it only racist when non-Japanese people (aka, in this case, white people) so the same thing? Which would be racism...

Imagine anglos telling Asians they can't make a movie about America because it's racist due to the inaccuracies.
1
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
Just don't buy the game then, the same people signing this thing want to play as a japanese person apparently don’t think women are people seeing how you can literally play as a female Japanese shinobi, stop rage farming, its clearly not that big of a deal in japan lol, i just think its funny how this wasn’t such a big deal for the white guy in the shogun tv show or the white guy in the nioh games but as soon as a black man is introduced they cry, stop hating your life and be normal and just enjoy stuff , allow the rest of us to play it.
2
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
Where to sign this petition?
-1
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
Get a life and get out of your parents basement. It's a fantasy game not reality, not historical enough for you then don't buy it. I'm sure there are plenty of other historically accurate fantasy games out there.
0
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·
Anonymous user
This honestly says a lot about Ubisoft considering that same Ghost of Tsushima was made by western developers and was LOVED by Japanese.
Who would have known that respecting cultures and making a good game is what's needed to captivate people.

But Ubisoft is a big company and need to play the game of diversity. Which they are doing so bad they are using hip hop theme for Yasuke. I'm so tired of this.
2
Anonymous user
·2 days ago·

Players Sign Petition to Cancel Assassin's Creed Shadows

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