According to IGN, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot revealed during Paris Games Week that last year’s intense backlash over Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Black samurai co-protagonist Yasuke directly caused the game’s high-profile delay from November 2024 to March 2025. Guillemot showed an internal video detailing how the conversation shifted “from gameplay to ideology” and even drew involvement from Elon Musk. The company admitted it needed to “stop focusing on those who hated us” and instead fire up allies by delaying to polish the game and rebuild the Assassin’s Creed brand. Ubisoft used the extra time to show more gameplay, emphasize franchise staples like hoods and stealth, and ultimately shift public opinion. The game has since sold 5 million copies, performing “in line with expectations” according to July reports.
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The real story behind the delay
Here’s the thing – this “we delayed to fight the haters” narrative feels a bit too clean. Other reports at the time told a different story. Insider Gaming reported that the delay was “widely expected” internally and “desperately needed” based on feedback from playtests and mock reviews. Former franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté also suggested the delay was about fixing Ubisoft‘s “inconsistency in quality” problem. So was this really about ideology, or was it about making a better game? Probably both, but the polished PR version sounds much better than “our playtesters thought the game needed work.”
The cancelled project nobody mentions
What’s really telling is what Guillemot didn’t mention. Around the same time as the Shadows delay, Ubisoft reportedly cancelled another Assassin’s Creed game set in post-Civil War America featuring a former slave as protagonist. They judged it “too risky” given the U.S. political landscape and, to some extent, the Yasuke backlash. So they’re celebrating how they turned around public opinion on one diverse protagonist while quietly shelving another. That’s some interesting selective memory right there.
When gaming gets political
Guillemot’s comments about players being “caught between ‘I want to play’ and ‘there is a cultural message'” actually hit on something real. Gaming has become this weird battleground where every character choice gets scrutinized. But let’s be honest – Assassin’s Creed has always been about historical tourism with a side of social commentary. The difference now? Everything gets amplified through social media outrage machines. Ubisoft’s strategy of “leaning on the brand” and showing more gameplay actually worked – the conversation did shift from Yasuke’s race to whether the parkour felt right. Maybe that’s the real lesson here: show people the game, not just the politics.
The aftermath
Five million copies sold is nothing to sneeze at, but it’s worth asking: would Shadows have performed better without the delay and controversy? The extra development time definitely helped polish the final product, but the pre-launch drama might have actually built more awareness. Controversy can be great marketing, even if it’s uncomfortable. Ubisoft’s internal video frames this as a brilliant crisis management story, but I wonder if they’d prefer to have avoided the whole mess entirely. You can follow more of Tom Phillips’ reporting on Bluesky for ongoing coverage.
