wow it's really not a good time to be working for Ubisoft is it not only did Star Wars Outlaws turn out to be a disastrous failure that was mocked by Gamers and massively underperformed financially but it turns out there was something even bigger and more devastating on the horizon yeah on the face of it Assassin's Creed Shadows sounds like an easy slam dunk an Assassin's Creed game set in feudal Japan the land of ninjas Samurai epic sword battles and absolutely bitching Haus it was practically tailor made for a stealth combat series like this then the
trailer came out and we got our first proper look at the game's protagonists not a great plan now I'm no historical expert here but I'm pretty sure that a gentleman like this would be a bit out of place in 16th century Japan which wasn't exactly known for being a multicultural Melting Pot if you catch mad drift Gamers were quick to pick up on this as well only for Ubisoft to argue back that their main man was based on the real life historical figure of Yas a black man who came to Japan with Jesuit missionaries before
serving under Lord ODU noaga and was eventually granted the honorary rank of Samurai we won't mention the fact that he was only taken in by noaga as a kind of traveling curiosity that he never fought a single battle or duel spoke very little Japanese only served under the man for less than a year and that he was given back to the Jesuit priests and disappeared from historical records after noaga was killed but sure I guess one fragmented and misinterpreted historical example is good enough for Ubisoft to turn him into a superhuman Ninja Assassin and give
him his own game and anyone who questioned that State of Affairs was clearly nothing but a racist bigot who needed to do better now that's fine when it comes to casually dismissing the criticisms of Western Gamers because clearly their opinions don't matter but the one thing that Ubisoft hadn't counted on was the Japanese reaction see it turns out that Japanese people are pretty protective of their history and cultural her it AG as they should be and if there's one thing that's guaranteed to piss them off it's some [ __ ] foreign game studio appropriating and
completely butchering their history and culture to push a political agenda that means absolutely nothing to them truly the message had finally found its Nemesis before you knew it Japanese Gamers were completely up in arms and what had started out as a minor controversy over here in the west quickly exploded into a fullscale backlash [ __ ] man the question of this game was even raised in the Japanese Parliament it was that bad and ubisoft's bold claims about respecting Japanese culture and history soon started to fall apart under any kind of scrutiny as Japanese Gamers and
historical experts began finding all kinds of mistakes and inaccuracies like Chinese architecture in Japanese cities flags and Banners that never actually existed in real life the baffling decision to give the game a hipop Zone track I said kill him and perhaps worst of all the licensed character statue of The Game's female supporting character perched on top of a half Tory Gates which is a bit unfortunate because in Japan that's an iconic symbol of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki so needless to say it didn't go down too well even a friendly New York Times article that
tried to put all the blame on Western audiences and pretend that Japanese Gamers were totally cool with the game was exposed as [ __ ] when the so-called Japanese expert they interviewed was revealed to have worked for sweet baby ink really yeah I'm sure he provided a totally unbiased view of the situation all of this negative publicity resulted in a tidal wave of criticism and scrutiny directed at Ubisoft themselves and it wasn't long before people like legendary drops and emion began to uncover some pretty damning testimonies about the workplace environment there are according to their
sources the original intention for this game was to feature a Japanese protagonist only for yase to be swapped in several years ago to reflect the cultural atmosphere in America at the time that's the problem with trying to jump on a trend that's unique to one particular part of the world and can change just as easily as the wind shifts Direction it's very easy to get left behind and end up looking like a [ __ ] fool but I think the most interesting Revelations had to do with the culture at Ubisoft itself according to their sources
it's a company that's basically ruled over by HR with an iron fist the kind of place we're putting an exclamation mark or the wrong Emoji in an email is seen as aggressive and threatening a place where the message takes priority over all other creative considerations where criticizing other people's ideas is frowned upon and you have to constantly walk on eggshells in case you get summoned for a disciplinary meeting for saying the wrong thing boy that escalated quickly the end result of all this stupid [ __ ] is to create a culture of toxic positivity where
every idea no matter how [ __ ] has to be given equal weight where every person no matter how whiny or incompetent has to be afforded equal respect and where it's almost impossible to produce a good end product because nobody can ever be challenged to do better it's The Logical end result of allowing your organization to become infested with idealogues and perpetually offended serial complainers instead of actual productive workers who are motivated to make something great people who just refuse to accept criticism or different points of view who aren't interested in working hard to bring
out the best in others people who's only real priorities are themselves and where exactly did it get them well Ubisoft have been forced to withdraw from the Tokyo game show in absolute humiliation because they know they'd get destroyed if they dared to show their faces there and more damagingly they've had to delay the game itself which was supposed to be one of their big launches this year to at least 2025 while they scramble to fix the problems they've created for themselves will they actually remove Yas as the protagonist probably not if I'm honest because if
they did they'd have to deal with a full scale internal revolt and it would be seen as the ultimate victory for all the toxic gamer Bros out there the thing is the negativity around this game has grown so huge that they'd probably be better off not releasing it at all once you've burned your reputation with your game's audience it's pretty difficult to get it back without a major course correction and I really don't think they have it in them at this point you truly do reap what you saw and I think 2024 is the year
that Ubisoft found that out to their costs anyway that's all I've got for today go away now
