Following the initial announcement of Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has managed to draw the ire of several different groups of haters.
Sexists aren't too happy you can play as a woman, racists aren't too happy you can play as a black man, and sexist racists definitely aren't happy you can play as a Japanese woman. It seems however that Ubisoft may have met the final end-boss of disgruntled internet denizens following one of their most recent PR mistakes: historical re-enactment groups.
Ubisoft have recently came under fire for directly lifting the likeness of the flag used by volunteer historical re-enactment group Sekigahara Teppo-tai, which was prominently featured in some of the artwork from Assassin's Creed: Shadows that they released.
As originally reported by Automaton, Ubisoft Japan's Twitter page posted that (following a discussion with one of Sekigahara Teppo-tai's members) the previously released artwork would "not be used or distributed any further"... except for one small caveat. The artbook featured in the £239.99 Collector's Edition of the game will still feature the flag in some of its artwork, assumedly because said books have already been printed.
Advert
One particular member of the Sekigahara Teppo-tai, who goes by @matchlock_kage on Twitter, isn't too happy with this resolution however. As they stated in one of their posts, the "historical inaccuracy" of the flag featuring in the artwork didn't necessarily bother them as the plot of is Assassin's Creed: Shadows is a "fantasy after all".
What did bother them was that the group were not contacted at any point beforehand for permission, which was particularly frustrating for the group considering their flag will still feature in the artbook regardless. They did however state that they hope the matter will be resolved "peacefully", and that they were currently waiting for further comment from Ubisoft representatives.
Fans of the Assassin's Creed games were quick to voice their concerns with Ubisoft Japan's apology on their Twitter post, but unfortunately it's difficult to discern between who is upset and why. Some fans voicing their outrage are clearly genuinely upset with Ubisoft for the mistake, but others are undoubtedly using the blunder as another excuse to pile on the game for its two main protagonists.
Topics: Ubisoft, Assassins Creed, Assassin's Creed Shadows