Assassin’s Creed Shadows was always going to leak. When it was delayed from its original February 2025 release date, I had a feeling that physical copies would escape from retailers who didn’t get the message, putting the game in the hands of folks who never signed an NDA or agreed to a review embargo. Ubisoft can ban their accounts and try to take down any streams, screenshots, or videos that appear online, but otherwise, there is nothing it can do. The game is out there, and now things are going to get complicated.

To be honest, when a game leaks ahead of release like this, it’s pretty easy to avoid bumping into spoilers online if you’re careful enough, and I doubt Shadows’ narrative and characters are truly interesting enough to make you angry if you discover more about them ahead of playing.

Ubisoft Is Between A Rock And A Hard Place With Shadows

I could be alone in that feeling, but it’s far from the defining problem that comes from this game emerging less than a month before its scheduled launch. Ever since it was revealed, Shadows has painted a target on its back for reactionary individuals who pretend to care about historical accuracy and the presence of Black characters like Yasuke, when all they care about is a thin excuse to express their bigotry and cast any trace of inclusivity out of the gaming space.

These very same people are going to begin sharing out-of-context gameplay footage and screenshots only to act like they have suddenly emerged victorious by informing their audiences that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the woke, shallow historical bastardization it had always claimed it to be. The evil is defeated, and video games are saved, until the next big triple-A blockbuster comes out and the cycle repeats.

We’ve seen this play out time and time again, but Ubisoft’s latest open world offering has occupied a unique position since its reveal because of the company’s reputation, the current state of the genre, and particular attention paid to how Western studios depict countries like Japan.

It’s also a ‘clever’ target – Assassin’s Creed and Ubisoft have been treading water for a while, so regardless of this controversy, a flop or disappointment (or both) would not be surprising.

Ghost of Tsushima was similarly criticised for how it depicted Japan during the invasion of the Mongols, but over time it appears to have been warmly received by players, critics, and devs alike.

What frustrates me most when watching bad-faith critics drag Shadows through the mud is that, in an ideal world, many of their criticisms would be valid and worth considering. I have been playing Assassin’s Creed for nearly 20 years, and after spending several hours with Shadows last month I emerged with several concerns about the size and variety of its open world and the ways in which it will handle its story and characters over dozens of hours.

There is a decent chance it will be bloated and boring, but the fringe groups crying wolf about Yasuke’s race or the presence of watermelons in a random town don’t care about that, nor do they go into games like this wanting to enjoy them.

That’s the overriding issue with gaming discourse in the present day. When it comes to titles like Avowed, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, or Assassin’s Creed Shadows, most of the critique being raised or shared online isn’t intended to help make a game better or have some sort of dialogue with developers, but to further a damaging political ideology and punch down at the most vulnerable in our society.

Shadows is no different, though it might be the worst example of this behaviour we’ve seen in quite some time. In the past, much of this took place in an echochamber that, as a consumer and a journalist, I could ignore, but now it feels harder and harder to stay out of the conversation.

Everybody Loses When It Comes To Leaks Like This

After hearing that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has leaked, casual fans looking forward to its release might pop onto Twitter or YouTube to see what all the fuss is about, hoping they can catch a peek at the finished gameplay before it’s in their hands. But, as we know, the loudest or often the least informed voices can rise to the top, and I’d hate to see those very same messages reaching people who might be influenced in all the wrong ways. People who have little to no interest in playing Shadows or sharing how Assassin’s Creed could address its problems are claiming they know best while spewing hate that ultimately has no purpose.

It’s worth noting that reporting on leaks and informing people about them and going out of your way to spoil them are two very different things. The way you decide to talk about them matters.

This was always going to happen after glimpsing back at the past six months of discussion around Shadows, but now that it has leaked in an unpatched state it only adds further fuel to a hateful fire that, time and time again, has proven difficult to put out. Once Shadows is out in March, it will finally be evaluated on merit, but it shouldn’t have become a target in the first place. Video games like this, and the people eager to enjoy, support, and critique them, deserve better.