Ubisoft have reportedly offered a corporate spin on the backlash Assassin’s Creed Shadows faced from right-wing grifters prior to release, with CEO Yves Guillemot framing it as “a battle with our fans, to demonstrate that we were, in fact, more of a video game than a message”. The company also seem to be trying to canonise the events as some kind of masterful marketing victory, which arguably isn’t too surprising, even if the fact they’re not trying to pretend the controversy never happened is.

According to Game File, a marketing video about the backlash was shown during last week’s Paris Games Week, with Guillemot subsequently making some comments further outlining how the corp – at least in terms of image they’re aiming to present to industry event attendees – have chosen to interpret what happened in hindsight.

“We had to stop focusing on those who hated us. We had to start firing up our allies,” the video declared. “We were initially surprised by the extent of the attacks,” Guillemot said afterwards, according to Game File’s translation. “And we quickly realized that it was a battle, a battle with our fans, to demonstrate that we were, in fact, more of a video game than a message.”

Aside from that, which mirrors what the exec said at the height of the controversy, the narrative being conveyed by the presentation looks to have been that Ubisoft scored a win by smartly opting to delay the game to polish it more and running a charm offensive along the lines of ‘come on folks, this is just Assassin’s Creed, you all like that’.

On one hand, it’s exactly how you’d expect a company to paint their response to what was overwhelmingly a lot of online dickheads being angry that Yasuke existed, was black, was a samurai, and was in a video game. On the other, it’s sigh-inducing that this retelling seemingly left out or minimised elements like how Assassin’s Creed lead Marc-Alexis Coté, who’s since departed Ubisoft, actually defended his team’s vision for the game, in contrast to Guillemot’s declaration that it was just a bit of brains-off entertainment.

There’s also the reported cancellation of an Assassin’s Creed set in post-Civil War America back in 2024, over execs’ concerns about the US’ current political climate. Apparently that was one battle in which Ubisoft didn’t back themselves to “fire up allies” and defeat what the marketing video reportedly called “the loudest haters”.