Japanese gamers have started a petition to cancel Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Since Ubisoft began showing more and more of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the game has faced an increasing backlash from Japanese players. Many have expressed frustration over the portrayal of the country and its culture in the upcoming game, and this has culminated in a petition on Change.org calling for the game to be canceled by Ubisoft.

So far, the petition has already collected over 25,000 signatures, including over 13,000 in the last 24 hours (at the time of writing). The petition specifically states (according to Google translation):

“Recently, the lack of historical accuracy and cultural respect has been a serious issue regarding the upcoming game “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” from game developer Ubisoft. The game is based on Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that samurai were a higher class of warriors and should have been “gokenin” or servants of nobles. In fact, the first European to be given the title of samurai, William Adams (Miura Anjin), served Tokugawa Ieyasu as a 250 koku hatamoto.

“In this story, Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of the samurai. This is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history, and it may also be linked to Asian racism. We call on Ubisoft to immediately cancel the release of “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” and to demonstrate sincere research and respect for Japanese history and culture.”

The petition was only launched on June 19 and seems to be gaining momentum. Ubisoft has yet to comment on the matter but has previously stated that the game was developed using expertise from its Tokyo and Osaka studios.

Thank you, BoundingIntoComics.