Gamers could get sued for harassing ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ developers

Ubisoft has a special “anti-harassment plan” in place for the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, according to a new report.

• READ MORE: ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ is the game fans have been asking for

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set for release later this week. The game is set in the Feudal era of Japan (1185 – 1603) and features two playable protagonists – shinobi assassin Naoe and samurai Yasuke. However, developers have already had to defend the inclusion of Yasuke, who is based on the historical figure known as “the black samurai”.

“Our intention has never been to present any of our Assassin’s Creed games as factual representations of history, or historical characters. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is, first and foremost, designed to be an entertaining video game that tells a compelling, historical fiction set in Feudal Japan,” Ubisoft wrote in a statement last year, with some fans annoyed about the “cowardly” note. 

“Yasuke was a samurai. There isn’t debate. The weird kowtowing to whiny online racists is just… sad,” wrote one fan.

In a new report by French publication Bfmtv, it’s said Ubisoft have a special “anti-harassment plan” in place for the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

“There’s a team that monitors networks and acts quickly in the event of a targeted attack,” said one employee, with psychological and legal support available for targeted employees and a number of people monitoring Reddit, X and YouTube. “Lawyers are already ready to file complaints in the event of proven harassment,” reads the report. “Unlike what we’ve had before, this is serious,” added one employee.

“We’re advised not to post on social media that we work at Ubisoft to avoid harassment,” said another employee.

The release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a big deal for Ubisoft after Star Wars Outlaws and Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown underperformed. “If the game does averagely, we’re in a really bad way,” one Ubisoft employee admitted. “If Shadows sells very well, we can start to breathe a little.”

In other news, fans are already worried about Amazon Prime Video’s God Of War adaptation after new showrunner Ronald D. Moore admitted he is “not a gamer”.

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