Ubisoft's PR Wizardry: Turning Assassin's Creed Shadows Backlash into a 'Victory'?
AI Gaming News Author · Rock Paper Shotgun ·
Ubisoft is reportedly reframing the initial backlash against *Assassin's Creed Shadows* as a strategic marketing win, with CEO Yves Guillemot claiming they proved it was "more of a video game than a message," a narrative that conveniently overlooks internal disagreements and past cautious decisions regarding politically charged game settings.
Alright, mateys, pull up a digital chair because we've got a fresh batch of corporate PR to decode, and honestly, it's a bit of a head-scratcher. Ubisoft, bless 'em, are apparently trying to rewrite the history books on the *Assassin's Creed Shadows* controversy, painting the whole messy business as... wait for it... a *marketing victory*.
Now, I'm all for finding the silver lining in a data cloud, but this one feels like trying to transmute lead into gold with a slightly dodgy spell. According to our mates over at *Rock Paper Shotgun*, citing *Game File* (big thanks to Mark Warren for digging this up!), Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has been spinning a yarn in marketing presentations.
His big takeaway from the pre-release kerfuffle – y'know, the one where a vocal minority decided a historical figure being Black was somehow an affront to their delicate sensibilities? – was that it was 'a battle with our fans, to demonstrate that we were, in fact, more of a video game than a message.' Fair dinkum, a battle to prove your *game is a game*. Who'd have thunk it?
This isn't just a quiet boardroom whisper, mind you. Apparently, during Paris Games Week, they even showed a marketing video, all dramatic and everything, proclaiming: 'We had to stop focusing on those who hated us. We had to start firing up our allies.' Which, on one hand, sounds like a decent battle cry for any creative endeavour facing online nastiness. On the other, framing the *whole thing* as a strategic victory? That's some next-level PR sorcery right there.
Guillemot reportedly added that they were 'initially surprised by the extent of the attacks,' then 'quickly realized that it was a battle.' Look, I get it, corporations gotta corporate. They're not going to stand up and say, 'Yeah, we had a bit of a mare, the internet went wild, and we kinda just rode it out.' But to repackage it as a *masterful marketing stroke* where they shrewdly delayed the game for 'polish' and ran a 'charm offensive' ('come on folks, this is just Assassin's Creed, you all like that') feels a tad... disingenuous.
Especially when you consider a few key details that seem to have been conveniently minimised or, dare I say, *retconned* out of this glorious retelling. Remember when Assassin's Creed lead Marc-Alexis Coté actually stood up for his team's vision? Yeah, that doesn't quite fit the 'brains-off entertainment' narrative that Guillemot is reportedly pushing now. Coté, by the way, has since departed Ubisoft – make of that what you will, mate.
And here's a cheeky little pattern recognition for you, like spotting a glitch in the matrix: there's also the *reported cancellation* of an Assassin’s Creed game set in post-Civil War America back in 2024. Apparently, execs were a bit skittish about the US's 'current political climate.' So, in *that* battle, they didn't quite back themselves to 'fire up allies' and defeat 'the loudest haters.' Fascinating, isn't it? Seems some battles are more worth fighting – or at least, more worth *spinning as victories* – than others.
So, what does this digital tea-leaf reading tell us, eh? It's a classic move from the corporate playbook: control the narrative, especially when it involves any kind of unpleasantness. While it's probably true that a lot of the initial 'backlash' was, as the original article puts it, 'overwhelmingly a lot of online dickheads being angry that Yasuke existed,' the way Ubisoft is now trying to *own* that controversy feels... well, it feels like they're trying to sell us a perfectly functional horse, but insisting it's a unicorn because it survived a mild sprinkle. We gamers, we're not daft. We see the pixels behind the magic. Let's just hope the *actual game* delivers, eh? Because at the end of the day, that's what truly matters – not some wizard's duel over PR optics.
**Source:** Rock Paper Shotgun (Original article by Mark Warren)
Tags: Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft, Gaming Industry, PR & Marketing, Gaming Culture
Original article: Rock Paper Shotgun