When the first Assassin’s creed released for consoles in 2007 the game didn’t fail to disappoint. The inherent repetitiveness of the mission structure and gameplay left many gamers wanting more. A game that clearly had so much potential didn’t live up to the expectations that the hype had brought it. Enter Assassin’s Creed II: a game that arguably should have been what the first Assassin’s Creed wasn’t, it made so many radical changes to the series that everyone wanted. It ditched the bad, built on the good, and made a world that felt so real.
In 2025 Marc-Alexis Côté, the head of the Assassin’s Creed franchise and a 20 year veteran of Ubisoft, abruptly left the publisher following the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Ubisoft was reportedly working on a game set after the Civil War era, but canceled it due to politics and Assassins Creed Shadows backlash.
"Ubisoft was uncomfortable with the backlash surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows' Black samurai protagonist and concerned that the current political climate in America was too fraught."
They are so stupid. There was never a racist backlash to a black protagonist in Assassin's Creed, there was just a backlash because you wanted to have a 7foot black Samurai running around in ancient Japan when you should have had a Japanese local. (I haven't played the game yet, but I plan on it after I finish Ghost Of Yotei)
An Assassin's Creed based just after the American Civil War about a former slave being an Assassin and fight the KKK would have been freakin' EPIC. Something different story-wise in the Assassin's Creed universe. It would have been awesome. When I originaly read this rumor, I felt a bit of a gut punch because that is a game I would have loved to have played. Then I rolled my eyes when I read about Ubisoft's concerns. What a joke.
Were you worried of the fact that the early members of the KKK (after the Civil War) were predominantly Southern Democrats? Is that it? Im joking. But having a Black protagonist, WHERE IT MAKES SENSE, like after the Civl War, is no problem whatsoever. It's a slice from another time that I can't remember playing a game like that before. A former Black slave?. The game could have been really cool. I'm bummed they won't be making this one.
Well THIS idea for a game could have been. I mean I take your point. I've always been a sucker for Platinuming Assassin Creed games. I do them all, but NONE of them have ever been my GOTY. They're more like a guilty pleasure, similar to the Far Cry games
"But having a Black protagonist, WHERE IT MAKES SENSE"
You are aware that Yasuke was a real African samurai in Japan, no? How is a telling of his story (albeit a fantastical one) not "where it makes sense"?
I honestly think the concept of this game really could have worked, having said that, I don't trust Ubisoft to actually execute it in a satisfying way.
There was a backlash.
Americans are very vocal online and now there are police forces hunting foreign-looking people in the streets to deport them - even if they are actual Americans.
Companies are worried about selling “wokeness” to this population of 350+ million.
Then there are countries that are starting to move away from wokeness, to a more racially exclusive “whites only” traditional, like Poland, The UK and The Netherlands.
That’s a lot of sales, and though nations are becoming racist, it’s clear that big corporations only care about money and will sell what they think those countries will accept.
It wasn't a racist backlash. Maybe a few poeple, but the overwhleming majority was not a racist backlash. You thinking there was just shows how ridiculous you are and how warped your mind is.
Running around and killing the KKK and former confederates has been done to great effect in Red Dead Redemption 2.
It would be fun to play that with historical accuracy while debunking the lost cause mythos.
Such a wonderfully ripe opportunity. What a shame.
We've had black protagonists before in ac and it wasn't a problem, Bayek, Adéwalé, Aveline, the assassin has always represented the setting they're in, that's why there was so much backlash for shadows, people have been waiting since the first game! for Japan to be represented by some awesome japanese samurai or ninja, and instead we get an african samurai? With the tease for this game starting with the ending of the very first game, and people begging for it for so long, success was handed to them on a silver platter and they decided to pick this one of all the entries to change the formula, it was a dumb move.
Was there a bunch of racist buttholes shouting? absolutely, but a lot of fans complaining were just disappointed to see them finally take on japan only for the protagonist to not even remotely following the same type of lead as LITERALLY EVERY OTHER AC GAME EVER RELEASED!
Couldn't care less about him being black, i always liked yasuke as a mysterious historic figure, and i love him in other media like the anime(underrated soundtrack btw), Samurai Warriors, nioh, etc, but this was a waste of the character imo.
This just screams tone deaf, just like their entire marketing campaign for this game. Whatever! 🤷♂️ I got Ghost of Tsushima/yotei now to fill that void
I'm all for people expressing their views and I will defend everyone's right to do so. But I firmly believe that society needs to progress and be more accepting/tolerant and not be so obsessed with how others live their life's because that truth is it isn't affecting your personal life in a negative way, you just think it is. With that said, just as it was necessary to push back on all the annoying sjw stuff we can't forget to push back on all the ignorance coming from the opposite extreme. F*** the KKK and that nazi ish, I say make the game and let it offend em!
Wouldn’t this have made more sense story and setting wise than having a black slave turned Samurai in ancient Japan.
I’d rather have seen this story played out.
They should have just done this game instead of AC Japan, it would have been receieved much better.
They should've just done both and not change their artistic ideas for losers that talk about Yasuke being in the game more than actual Japanese people. This wasnt the only piece of media he's been in
More Assassin’s Creed content has been revealed for Reverse 1999.
It should be "Pirate's Creed" than Assassin's Creed
I feel Assasin's creed has gone too far left field. AC1 was dodgy at best but vastly improved into AC2 and AC:B since then it has a bit of a weird identity crises for AC series. AC Revelation (I did like by the way) had some weird additions like tower defence and AC3 was just pure wrong for the series. The series just didn't fit in that world and adding to that the awful voice acting just made the game feel wooden and empty. It wasn't an AC game (I was generous in my review giving it an 8). The only thing I really can praise AC3 for is making the Templars more appealing (should have done that from the beginning) but again this wasn't fully played out
Now we have Black flag which is (like Kanzes said above) more Pirate's Creed than Assassin's Creed. The AC series had so much potential by weaving a conspiracy story in real life events but they have failed to capitalise on this and have created a B rated movie style story with random adventures between the big releases.
They need to reboot it, sit down, plan the story from the beginning and not add story related stuff later on just to pad things out because at the moment it is poorly done.
the story probably would have been better for the series if they had just actually had it take place in those time periods. The desmond sections are pretty bad.
AC3 went wrong with its story but mainly the main character was a chore to play as.
I have never felt so disconnected and disenchanted with a character before. Connor was a total and utter bore while his dad was by far the more interesting character and should have been the playable character the whole way through.
It all went downhill after Brotherhood, which was a slight downgrade from II in my opinion.
Only cattle will willingly buy this game.