It’s incredibly heartening to see gamers united against Ubisoft’s blatant historical revisionism and their anti-Japanese agenda in the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Since Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows, fans have been justifiably outraged. A game set in feudal Japan had been a long-requested addition to the franchise. However, Ubisoft’s attempt to fulfill this wish has turned into a glaring effort to push a diversity narrative. The game features the mythical figure of “Yasuke” as a fully-fledged samurai serving under Oda Nobunaga.
Ubisoft stated that they aimed to feature a samurai protagonist in Japan who could provide “non-Japanese eyes.” The result was Yasuke, a black man with little to no historical significance, whose character has been romanticized and exaggerated by Western historians as a samurai.
Naturally, gamers who saw through Ubisoft’s agenda found the inclusion of a Black male samurai in 1500s Japan, depicted as maiming and decapitating Japanese people, to be racist and offensive. They viewed it as an attempt to disgrace Japan’s history and heritage, using the supposed historical figure of Yasuke as a scapegoat.
It is also worth noting that the writers for Assassin’s Creed Shadows have connections to the Sweet Baby Inc. consultation group, as Ubisoft is one of the many prolific partners of this DEI-promoting organization. Additionally, Giles Armstrong, the senior writer for the game, has previously stated that cis White men like himself are privileged in the gaming industry.
Both Westerners and especially the Japanese feel the game deliberately insults their history and heritage by hiding behind a mythical “historic” individual who happens to be Black. They see the creation of a new history for such a character as a means of deflecting criticism, labeling objections to Yasuke’s inclusion as mere racism rather than fulfilling DEI/ESG checkboxes.
As a result, Japanese players have started a Change.org petition in hopes of seeing the game canceled. Previously, we mentioned the petition had reached 34,000 signatures, and now it’s over 80,000.
The petition to cancel Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues to gain momentum. More and more well-known figures in Japan are expressing their outrage over the African samurai and other historical inaccuracies.
According to the official page on Change.org, the number of signatories is relentlessly approaching 100,000. Over 80,000 people have supported the petition, and the number keeps growing daily. Users on social media and gaming forums are actively calling for people to sign the petition, even if they are not Japanese and simply disagree with the concept of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
I mentioned previously that you shouldn’t view this petition at face value but rather as each signature representing an individual committed to proactively boycotting Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Gamers have the right to purchase or refrain from buying a game for any reason they choose. This is why gaming journalists have been working hard to omit facts and gaslight consumers, desperately attempting to shift the blame back onto gamers who are exposing companies like Sweet Baby Inc. for stifling creativity and pushing a forced diversity agenda.
Who would have guessed that journalists would protect their friends and allies in their incestrial industry? It was surprising to see the game’s producer become overly emotional to the point of resorting to meditation, unable to handle influential individuals such as Elon Musk pointing out that Ubisoft’s game is a travesty and that diversity, equity, and inclusivity kills creativity.
Meanwhile, the situation surrounding the new Assassin’s Creed has caught the attention of Japan’s largest gaming blogger, cabbage_games. To highlight the absurdity of Ubisoft’s idea of an African samurai, he released a musical parody.
In the video, the author mocked Ubisoft’s attempts to ignore historical facts in favor of modern agendas. The blogger also mentioned the controversial company Sweet Baby Inc., which he believes is ruining the entire gaming industry with its actions. The music video is well-produced and informative, showcasing Japan’s serious disapproval of blatant historical revisionism in a quirky way.
In a desperate attempt to appease Japanese audiences, Ubisoft apologized via the Ubisoft Japan Twitter account for the unauthorized use of a flag in concept art. This comes despite already mishandling the collector’s edition statue for the game, which included linguistic errors and historical inaccuracies.
The company used the flag of a real-world Sekigahara reenactment group in concept art for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, yet no actual apology has been given for blatantly disrespecting Japan’s history by reimagining the supposed historical figure of Yasuke as a mythical samurai who slaughters his way through opposing Japanese warriors.
The flag in question belongs to the Sekigahara Teppo-tai (or Sekigahara gun group) infantryman reenactment group. Ubisoft stated that it directly contacted the reenactment group and apologized to its members. The Sekigahara Teppo-tai confirmed via Twitter that they had been approached by the company with an apology on July 3, 2024, and reiterated that it would be difficult to eliminate the already printed data showing the flag.
Agitated gamers have finally uncovered the truth behind Yasuke’s portrayal as a samurai, despite the lack of official evidence supporting such claims. His fantasized background originally came from Thomas Lockley, a author who I must say has quite the pronounced nose.
He happens to be the Associate Professor at Nihon University College of Law in Tokyo, where he teaches courses on the international and multicultural history of Japan and East Asia.
Thomas Lockley wrote two books on Yasuke, starting with “Yasuke: In Search of the African Samurai” in 2017 after he stumbled upon the intriguing story of Yasuke and based his “historical works” on edited Wikipedia sources rather than verifiable historical data, essentially crafting his own “story” from “history.”
The reality, as detailed in the videos, paints a more insidious picture of what’s happening behind the scenes. Bad actors have been revising history on sites like Wikipedia since 2012. Lockley published a second book in 2019, “African Samurai: The True Story of Yasuke, a Legendary Black Warrior in Feudal Japan,” co-authored with another writer, further embellishing Yasuke’s background and narrative with falsified Wikipedia entries and his own creativity.
These books, based on falsified Wikipedia entries and heavily fantasized, have been used by “academics” to promote the belief that Yasuke was indeed a samurai. This has popularized his name and fictional backstory worldwide, allowing Ubisoft to use him as a scapegoat to push their DEI-driven agenda.
This is blatant historical revisionism, obvious to all. Yasuke’s historical background, based on a fictional book that relied on fake Wikipedia sources, is being used by Ubisoft to distort Japan’s history.
Ubisoft, fixated on race and inclusion, declared they wanted a non-Japanese focus for their samurai in a game set in feudal Japan and had that statement omitted from their interview with Famitsu after Japanese gamers took notice and complained.
Instead of featuring someone like William Adams, a well-documented foreign-born individual who was given the title of samurai, Ubisoft jumped on the Yasuke bandwagon. They chose to include such a character as a real-life historical figure with his fictional history purely because a Black character serves as an ideal candidate to fulfill diversity quotas and checklists, solidifying Yasuke’s falsified background as fact while also serving as a shield against accusations of racism.
Ubisoft has become a detestable company, openly proclaiming that gamers should accept that they don’t truly own their games. They shut down the servers for their online-only live service game “The Crew” and even attempted to take digital copies away from owners on UPlay / Ubisoft Connect.
Journalistic outlets have echoed the same message, insisting that Yasuke was “known as” or outright is a samurai. Those who oppose Ubisoft’s apparent anti-Japanese agenda or express outrage over the distortion of a supposed historical figure’s background into fantasy are labeled as mere racists, dismissing their concerns.
Because they themselves despise Asian countries, summarizing them as being “White-adjacent.”
With over 80,000 gamers signing up to boycott the game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is poised to be one of the worst-received installments in recent memory. No doubt, gaming journalists will band together to enforce the Yasuke samurai narrative, showering Assassin’s Creed Shadows with stellar praise and coverage upon release while vilifying those who object as bigots.
