Ubisoft advises employees to refrain from celebrating the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows as part of their “anti-harassment initiative.”

To avoid harassment, staff at Assassin’s Creed Shadows studio Ubisoft Quebec have been “advised” not to celebrate or otherwise post on social media about the game’s launch this week, as reported by French outlet BFM TV and spotted by Kotaku.

This follows months of online anger directed at the open world game, much of it from charming sods with handles like ‘Da Phrenology Gamer’ doing everything they can to avoid actually playing videogames, presumably before logging off for dinner and complaining that they don’t want to eat any more woke broccoli, mum. Can’t-hang-viceroy Elon Musk even got involved at one point, commenting “DEI kills art” on a tweet about the game (as opposed to, you know, cutting education funding).

While much of this ire was targeted at the inclusion of black samurai protagonist Yasuke, it’s worth noting that Ubisoft themselves released a statement last July apologising for promotional materials “that have caused concern within the Japanese community”, while emphasising that Shadows aims to be an “immersive and respectful” work of historical fiction rather than “factual representation”.

They don’t specify which materials, but Kotaku note that Ubisoft apologised separately for the use of a flag belonging to military reenactment group Sekigahara Teppo-tai. Collectibles company PureArts also pulled a figurine depicting the game’s protagonists in front of a one-legged torii gate, which some felt disrepectfully evoked the damage caused to Nagasaki’s Sannō Shrine in the 1945 bombing.

This has all contributed towards an online atmosphere of hostility towards the game, which BFM TV report has culminated in an internal anti-online harassment plan at Ubisoft. “It’s an initiative from Canada. There’s a team that monitors networks and acts quickly in the event of a targeted attack,” an employee told the outlet, via Google Translate. “Unlike what we’ve had before, this is serious”.

Activity on X, Reddit, and Youtube will be “closely monitored by a dedicated unit”, write BFM TV, “in order to respond quickly to the slightest problem”. Lawyers are prepared to “file complaints in the event of proven harassment.”

“Our stance has always been that team members’ social media channels are their own,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told PCGN. “Our top priority is the safety of our employees, including online, which is why, as a standard practice across Ubisoft, we offer guidance on navigating social media, digital safety, and support for team members’ well-being. We also share resources to help prevent and protect against online harassment, something our teams have unfortunately faced.”

Ubisoft aren’t the only publisher to take similar steps in recent months. In January, Square Enix announced a new policy vowing to clamp down on harassment, bigotry and, uh, fallacious compensation requests.