Ubisoft Cancels Press Previews of Assassin's Creed Shadows

simple@lemm.ee to Games@lemmy.world – 228 points – Ubisoft Cancels Press Previews of Assassin's Creed Shadows
insider-gaming.com

Something must be going on at Ubisoft. They cancelled their Tokyo Game Show stream without any explanation as well.

54

Always a good sign for a release.

I mean cancelling preview copies of Space Marine 2 seemed to work out. They got to finish cooking and it paid off for them in the end with everyone's minds being blown (I haven't played it yet myself, but I've seen reviews).

But that's most likely not the case here.

17 more...
17 more...

I want Ubisoft to crumble.

It's just going to be a shit version of ghost of tsushima

I'm sure it's fine, right guys? Guys? This is the AAAA company, it'll be great right?

I feel like a lot of companies that put the most emphasis on making diverse IP make the worst products. I don't think that the lack of quality is due to diversity. Rather, I think that companies with soulless corporate leadership have a habit of producing mediocre content and attempting to obfuscate said mediocrity by making an otherwise uninspiring game a referendum on the culture war.

I'm willing to bet that there are developers who can make a game that is more organically diverse and genuinely fun, but that they don't get an honest shot due to the state of modern gaming.

Anyway this game is gonna be crap, IGN is gonna give it a 10/10, and Polygon is gonna go on a tirade when it underperforms in the same way every AC game since black flag has underperformed.

what do you mean by diverse IP? Ubisoft has notoriously done the exact opposite by eliminating every distinguishing characteristic of their games and converging all of their designs into assassin's creed with another name. Ubisoft has one of the least diverse portfolio of any AAA company, and that's saying something.

the only good (and diverse) things that come out of Ubisoft have been from a small team inside that somehow missed all the rituals to sell their souls to Asmodeus so they keep making bangers like Rayman and the recent Prince metroidvania.

Sadly, I think this person is railing against "having more than just white guys featured" (as if that's forced, when you start making games in new locations around the world) rather than the bland Ubi-style open-world map checklist that you might expect to be the sane complaint.

oh. going through their profile certainly suggests that way. it's weird to call that "diverse IP"... but weird is pretty on brand for that crowd i guess.

I'm railing about corporate making a mediocre game and then jamming some culture war shit into it in a blantant attempt to distract from the fact that the game is mediocre.

Also AC has had "more than just white guys" featured since the first game.

No one jams culture war shit into things like people complaining about culture war shit.

The first few games were actually good, though. AC2 is one of my favorites.

Exactly. The problem isn't diversity. The problem is soulless corporations who put out mediocre games, and then try to shoehorn diversity in a fairly surface level and lazy fashion as a distraction.

It would have been weird if AC1 didn't star an individual of MENA descent, because the game was set in the middle east. Origins had minority protagonists for similar reasons Connor being Native American in AC3 added a lot of depth when it came to the concept of freedom and how it relates to the American revolution.

I feel like I've seen the same story a million times. Mediocre IP, lazy forced diversity, culture war commentary, undeserved stellar reviews, underperformance with audiences due to fundamental issues.

I mean it is a diverse portfolio, but only on the very shallow surface level. Like COD or FIFA, AC games are the same every year / 2 years with a different skin.

I remember when it was actually different 10+ years ago, like when we got AC Unity, Black Flag close by, with some Far Cry 3 on the side. Their open worlds had similar elements, but it was still very different at the core.

Now it’s just repetitive and boring.

Luckily Ubisoft of all companies can totally afford that sort of stuff right now. It'll be fiiiiine.

They're wasting such a badass historical figure in Yasuke on such a color by numbers game.

Gonna wait and see what their statement is.

If it's that they're gonna change something in the game, I doubt it's gonna be related to the (black) main character. I can't imagine it would be an easy fix to fully replace him with a different character at this point.

If people really find it such a big deal I think best they could do is to let people choose their own main male character, like Odyssey and Valhalla.

I feel like the discussion is way past "the main character is black" at this point

Pretty sure it's not. Have you seen the average discussions about the game?

Ya. What I have seen is mainly related to Ubisoft saying the game is history accurate but it is not at all that. Also they used some stolen / AI generated assets when promoting the game. Also it is disrespectful to have a foreigner going around killing Japanese.

:Also it is disrespectful to have a foreigner going around killing Japanese.

This part is fucking stupid but the rest makes sense.

It's one of those things that you won't care generally but stands out when other things make you think they might be not respectful

Inaccuracies, both historical and caused by a general lack of research. Stolen assets that they have no right to use, some of which could be considered culturally insensitive. Differences in the English and Japanese "apology" letter which make it seem like they're disregarding the Japanese, or attempting to turn the rest of the world against them. General lack of polish.

From what I understand he is not THE main character he is one of the two main characters.

It would be impossible to replace him at this point in the development and other than the super hard-core racists I don't think anyone wants that at all.

Sweet Baby leaves its taint over a long lasting beloved franchise yet again!

Thank God for Space Marine 2!