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Assassin’s Creed Shadows has landed some solid success on online storefronts, and an overall decent critical reception. PC Gamer’s own Morgan Park gave it an 80 in his review, which is none too shabby.
To celebrate, Ubisoft has gone from avoiding treading on eggshells, to getting its biggest, chunkiest eggshell-stomping boots and marauding through an eggshell field while laughing uproariously, scoring one of the biggest ratios I think I’ve ever seen on social media.
For context: Ubisoft has found itself in the unenviable position of being caught in the midst of an ongoing culture war over whether videogames are woke or not—woke, generally speaking, meaning anything with the wrong shape of woman woman or a pronoun selection screen or a Black person or a consulting company present during its development. That is to say, it’s a word that’s lost most of its meaning.
This time, they were bristling over the inclusion of historical Black samurai Yasuke—never mind that over-the-top historical fiction is the series’ thing (Leonardo Da Vinci, you’d be surprised to find out, never built a working tank) nor the fact that Yasuke, and characters inspired by him, have both popped up repeatedly in Japanese anime and videogames. My favourite, by far, is Guilty Gear Strive, where his expy is a big vampire man with a skull mask and a banging theme song.
Ubisoft’s initial response to this was to try and meet these naysayers halfway. It held up its hands and stated that Yasuke’s position in history was “a matter of debate and discussion”. Later, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot would also try to reassure folks that the studio wasn’t trying to “push any specific agenda”.
It wouldn’t be until November that the tone would change, with franchise head Marc-Alexis Coté stating: “We all however face the added challenge of distinguishing between genuine feedback and attacks driven by intolerance. The current climate is tough on our creative teams. They face lies, half truths and personal attacks online.”
Now that the game is out, though? Ubisoft’s gone from stoic but firm rebuttals to publicly clowning on a tech billionaire. Elon Musk, owner of the platform this happened on and self-admitted supporter of Path of Exile 2’s account-trading industry, has been particularly vocal about Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Writing, in June of last year, that “DEI kills art”.
He’s been particularly vocal in the following X thread, too, coming after a streamer who’d done a paid promotion for the game. “Hasan is a fraud,” Musk writes, producing his blade and levelling it at his enemy. “‘Sell-out’ would be more accurate. Objectively, he is promoting a terrible game just for the money.” The official Assassin’s Creed account, liberating its own steel free from the prison of its sheath, retorts: “Is that what the guy playing your Path of Exile 2 account told you?”
Both stand at the ready. The setting sun bleeds red into the sky, bearing witness to their duel. Reeds sway in the breeze. Elon Musk and the Assassin’s Creed Shadows X account flash towards each other. There’s a blinding shock of light. As they stagger from the momentum, Elon Musk’s post accrues 23,000 likes—a superficial blow. In true Samurai movie fashion, he then looks down to see the effect of his opponent’s strike, as over the next 14 hours the Assassin’s Creed Shadows account rakes in upwards of 440,000 likes, nonchalantly sheathing its katana with a satisfying click.
To put that in perspective, the Stade de France, which hosted the 2024 Olympics, has a seating capacity of around 80,000 people. The likes on the account’s reply could fill up that stadium 5.5 times. The likes on Elon Musk’s post wouldn’t even book half the seats. 440,000 is a comparable amount, also, to EA’s legendarily flubbed Reddit comment, “A sense of pride and accomplishment”, which tanked over 600,000 downvotes circa 2017.
The account would then later double down, quoting its own post with the following: “Where other men blindly follow the truth… Remember, nothing is true,” a maxim of the series’ titular assassin’s creed. Even some of the quotes cheering Musk on are taking his lunch money. “$44 billion to get cooked on your own website,” writes one spectator, to the tune of 190,000 likes (around 2.3 Stade de Frances).
While I am quietly and respectfully amused by this development, I think the fact that Ubisoft appears to’ve stopped giving a crap is the takeaway here. Though it’s pretty significant that over 440,000 people are also fed up with the outrage tourism, too. The game’s out, and as Morgan said in his review, “Is Shadows fun? I’m so glad that one is an easy yes.” Nobody—least of all Ubisoft’s shareholders—have to wring their hands anymore. As a matter of fact, the gloves seem off entirely.
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Kurt Indovina
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