AC Shadows Delay Was Result Of Yasuke Backlash, Ubisoft Says

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Yves Guillemot, the head of Ubisoft, has explained the reason for the delay of their new game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows. He says the game was pushed back from November 15, 2024, to February 14, 2025, because the team needed more time to focus on making the gameplay fun, rather than prioritizing a specific message or viewpoint.

A Game File report from November 5th revealed that Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot presented a video to industry professionals at Paris Games Week, held from October 30th to November 2nd. The professionally narrated, 184-second video explained how Ubisoft was addressing the negative feedback the company had received.

The video begins by asking a provocative question: what happens when a highly anticipated game from a beloved series ends up being widely disliked? It then explores a series of related issues – when discussions move from how a game plays to the ideas behind it, when every comment seems to make things worse, and when your supporters become your critics.

The video explained that Ubisoft faced strong criticism when they announced Shadows in 2024. To overcome this negative reaction, the company decided to concentrate on supporting its fans instead of dwelling on the negativity. The video’s narrator said this meant relying heavily on the popular Assassin’s Creed franchise.

We did something unexpected at the beginning: we postponed the game’s release. This extra time let our developers refine the gameplay, improve performance, and ultimately deliver a high-quality Assassin’s Creed experience that fans deserve. It also allowed us to refocus on what makes Assassin’s Creed special – emphasizing stealth, parkour, and a rich story – so we could demonstrate that the core spirit of the franchise is still alive in Shadows.

Throughout the rest of the video, the language remains focused on corporate messaging, as detailed in the November 5th Game File report transcript. The narrator claims that by simply showcasing the game, Ubisoft regained fans’ trust, changed the narrative, and felt empowered to “stand tall, take risks, and speak out, even to those who were most critical.” The video doesn’t specify who these critics were, nor does Yves Guillemot explain the negative reaction to Shadows in his following statements. However, he alluded to the “artificial conflicts” stemming from balancing gameplay with historical accuracy.

Guillemot admitted they were shocked by how widespread the attacks were. They quickly understood it was a struggle to prove to their community that they were a game company focused on games, not just a platform for messages.

We found that letting fans preview the game—and reminding them of what they already loved about Assassin’s Creed—helped calm negative reactions. Video games have a powerful effect on players, and our fans were conflicted between wanting to express themselves through gameplay and feeling concerned about the game’s cultural message. Our aim is to make sure players rediscover and champion what they want from our games. This approach quickly resolved the disagreements, which were mostly just superficial arguments.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows faced strong criticism due to its inclusion of Yasuke, a historical figure who was a Black samurai. Some players accused the game of being overly focused on current social issues or of misrepresenting history. The negative reaction was reportedly so significant that Ubisoft decided to halt development on a planned Assassin’s Creed game set during the American Civil War. Despite the controversy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows still attracted five million players within five months of its release in February.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows earned an 8/10 score in TopMob’s review and recently added the Claws of Awaji expansion, bringing a wealth of new content. Plus, the game is coming to the Nintendo Switch 2 in December, and you can pre-order the Switch version now.

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2025-11-06 20:09