Ubisoft allegedly cancelled plans for a new Assassin’s Creed game set in in the aftermath of the American Civil War last year, with online moaning about Assassin’s Creed Shadows co-protagonist Yasuke and concerns over the volatility of the modern day US political climate being cited as reasons.
This is according to a report from Game File, which claims the game would have starred a black former slave who moves westwards from the south in search of a new life. He’d subsequently be recruited by the series’ Assassins and return to the south in a story that’d involve confronting the rise of Ku Klux Klan during the Reconstruction era that spanned the 1860s and 70s.
Game File cites current and former Ubisoft staff who say that the game, which was in the concept phase, was canned in July 2024. Ubisoft management reportedly pointed to online vitriol in response to black samurai Yasuke being revealed as one of Shadows’ protagonists as a reason behind the move, as well as concerns about the US’ current political climate. The latter is alleged to have been the bigger factor in the cancellation. As one of Game File’s sources put it, the game was viewed as being “too political in a country too unstable”.
Ubisoft’s rocky financial state was also a reported factor in the decision, making execs keen to steer away from perceived risks. “I was terribly disappointed but not surprised by leadership,” one of Game File’s sources said. “They are making more and more decisions to maintain the political ‘status quo’ and take no stand, no risk, even creative.”
I’ve reached out to Ubisoft for comment.
Ubisoft’s handling of the Yasuke controversy was rather topsy-turvy, with Shadows developers defending their work while managment types like CEO Yves Guillemot tried to pull the old ‘no politics here in a video game, please stop thinking we might have thoughts to express in this video game’ cop-out.
It’s not like the company hasn’t backed games that tackled issues like slavery before. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, the beloved entry that’s reportedly getting the remake or remaster tratement at the moment, span-off into Freedom Cry, which tells the tale of former slave Adewale fighting to free slaves in Saint-Domingue. Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation deals with similar themes, as you’d expect when making games set in periods of history when colonialism and its effects had a big impact on society and folks’ everyday lives.
You can perhaps understand the risk aversion if you only look at the bottom line, but it’s depressing to see a game spoken enthusiastically about by its developers be lobbed out of the window because of the state of affairs in modern day America. If anything, that would have made releasing a game exploring these themes even more important and commendable.
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