After a major controversy over Yasuke’s depiction in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has decided to apologise to all Japanese players.

When Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows was first revealed in May 2024, there was a lot of chatter about the game’s protagonists, particularly about Yasuke. Ubisoft was accused of “going woke” as people criticized their decision to feature a Black samurai protagonist instead of an indigenous Japanese one. A petition was filed, originally in Japanese, claiming that Yasuke’s depiction was disrespectful and demanded the cancellation of the game. Ubisoft swiftly responded to the controversy by apologizing to Japanese players.

There was a lot of criticism over Yasuke’s depiction in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Image via Ubisoft)

Assassin’s Creed video games have always been inspired by historical events, rather than being based entirely on them. So, the Yasuke controversy doesn’t exactly make sense, but still, Ubisoft decided to apologize to the players, adding that they worked with various experts while developing the game, something that even art director Thierry Dansereau has highlighted in the past.

Ubisoft apologized to Japanese players for Yasuke’s depiction in Assassin’s Creed Shadows

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The initial response to Assassin’s Creed Shadows wasn’t exactly how Ubisoft expected it to be. The controversy was due to one of the game’s protagonists, Yasuke, who is inspired by an African samurai of the same name. The studio was criticized for not picking an indigenous Japanese samurai, but Ubisoft defended its decision by stating that it wants players to explore Japan through “the eyes of a foreigner.“

Subsequently, a petition was signed that claimed that the depiction of a Japanese samurai in Shadows is inaccurate and disrespects the Japanese culture. Ubisoft then responded to the controversy by releasing a statement on X.

The Assassin’s Creed Shadows team has a message for our Japanese community. pic.twitter.com/AIyWNU9YhG

— Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) July 23, 2024

As Ubisoft stated, the franchise has never depicted history exactly the way it was. Its setting and characters are inspired by history but there’s always a twist. Even Yoshiki Okamoto, a Japanese game designer who has worked on popular video game franchises like Street Fighter, Monster Strike, and Red Dead, defended Ubisoft claiming that the game is a “fantasy,” not reality.

Ubisoft has worked with experts to avoid historical inaccuracies

Ubisoft is confident that the game will be well-received by the players (Image via Ubisoft)

In the statement, Ubisoft pointed out that it worked with external consultants, historians, researchers, and internal teams at Ubisoft Japan to make sure that the game is historically accurate. This was also highlighted by the game’s art director Thierry Dansereau in an interview with Eurogamer. He said,

There was a letter published by Ubisoft apologizing to that group of people in Japan – But something they need to know is we are working with experts, world-renowned experts, and if we have in any way offended [people] we are sorry but this is not the goal.

He added that the team paid a lot of attention to staying as respectful as possible to Japanese culture. In the end, everyone at Ubisoft is confident with how the game will be received.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows was originally set to be released on November 15th, 2024. However, the release date was pushed to February 14th, 2025, for further polishing. Once again, in January, Ubisoft delayed the game, setting March 20th as its new release date.