Shareholder meetings are usually pretty boring affairs, but in video games, you sometimes get players themselves showing up. They buy a piece of the company, and instead of complaining online like everyone else, they get to ask questions directly to the CEO’s face once a year. That’s what happened earlier this month, when one angry gamer went full “debate me” mode on the head of Ubisoft.
“First of all, regarding Assassin’s Creed Shadows, there’s been a lot of controversy regarding that game,” someone who claimed to be a recent investor but longtime player said during the Q&A portion of Ubisoft’s July 10 shareholder meeting, according to a new report by Game File. “How do you respond? Ubisoft has been accused and criticized for this woke-ist trend. And this [game] is happening in 16th century medieval Japan and the main character is an African samurai. That’s a bold choice by Ubisoft. And in the story, he falls in love, that’s one of the possibilities of the game, he gets to fall in love with a transgender character.”
Then, they dropped this bomb like they were a James Bond villain grilling 007. “So, woke or no woke,” they said. “How do you explain Ubisoft’s deteriorated reputation, which may actually challenge the foundations of your organization? So, is that a show of openness on your part? Or are you going to backtrack or backpedal on that leftist political agenda? Is there room in the entertainment world for that kind of stance?”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows released back in March and is currently the third-best-selling game of 2025. But it was dogged by no shortage of manufactured outrage online prior to launch because it was the first game in the series to take place in Japan but included a Black character named Yasuke, a real historical figure, as one of its two playable protagonists. It also features a nonbinary ronin named Ibuki, who Yasuke can romance.
The fact that the game’s destruction physics carry over to some of its shrines was used to try to drum up controversy online as well. Elon Musk claimed “DEI kills art” in response to the game’s announcement. Assassin’s Creed Shadows producer Marc-Alexis Côté said comments like Musk’s were fueling hatred. The official Assassin’s Creed X/Twitter account followed up wth a viral clap-back a year later, after the Tesla CEO admitted to cheating in Diablo IV.
While CEO Yves Guillemot has commented on the topic before, this appears to be the first time the online culture wars have ever bled over into real life. The veteran executive provided no juicy soundbites in response, but did defend Assassin’s Creed Shadows in general terms, and the creative choices of its development team, as he has done in the past.
“Obviously, with regard to this particular game, what was our goal?” Guillemot said. “We wanted to showcase characters with heroic journeys. Everybody wants to play a hero’s journey. You shift your circumstances, and you become something more, and it’s a very powerful expectation from games. This is a hero quest, and it doesn’t just apply to Ubisoft or [unintelligible]… This is an actual character. This is someone who really existed. And showcasing that character has been extremely successful. And that is why we decided to tell that story. We wanted to tell a different story.”
Game File reports that the “woke or not woke” shareholder also grilled the CEO on the Stop Killing Games movement, which was launched in reaction to Ubisoft delisting The Crew and recently surged to over 1 million petition signatures in the EU. “Obviously support for all games cannot last forever,” Guillemot said, “but that’s an issue that we’re working on.” Other shareholders asked about the success of Riot Games’ rival FPS Valorant, Ubisoft’s tanking stock price, and whether it can invest in more AA games. Guillemot pointed to franchises like Anno and Rayman, but it sounds like the company will remain focused on its biggest blockbusters.
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