A petition on Change.org, which has already collected more than 45 thousand signatures, calls for the cancellation of the game due to alleged historical and cultural inaccuracies
In Japan, a storm has erupted over the next installment in Ubisoft’s popular video game series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. A petition on Change.org, which has already collected more than 45,000 signatures, is calling for the game to be canceled due to alleged historical and cultural inaccuracies in the title. The petition accuses Ubisoft of perpetuating misunderstandings about the nature and role of samurai, considering it a serious insult to Japanese culture and history, as well as a possible example of racism towards Asians. The authors of the petition are loudly calling for Ubisoft to immediately cancel the game’s release.
The Japanese trailer for Assassin’s Creed Shadows has received over 50,000 dislikes on YouTube, compared to just 5,000 thumbs ups. Comments accuse Ubisoft of disrespecting Japanese culture and calling for a boycott of the game. However, digging deeper into the petition reveals that many of the signatories are not actually Japanese. For example, a user named Kenneth stated that he is an American soldier stationed in Okinawa and was offended by Ubisoft’s disrespect for Japanese history and traditions. Most of the comments in Japanese focus on inaccuracies regarding architecture and depictions of Japanese life.