Rewriting Yasuke in 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' at the Eleventh Hour?
Yes, it's ridiculous, but multiple separate reports makes one thing clear - where there's smoke.. there's fire... and something major is changing…
The news that Ubisoft is rumored to be making major changes to the portrayal of Yasuke in Assassin's Creed Shadows has sent shockwaves through the gaming community. After announcing a three-month delay, Ubisoft is appearing to now be undertaking the herculean task of altering not just minor details but potentially... an entire character arc in a game that is supposedly "feature complete." Tom Henderson of Insider Gaming dropped the megaton bomb rumor.
As someone who's worked in the game industry, I can't overstate just how significant—and risky—this move is. It screams of desperation and poor planning, potentially now also alienating ALL sides in the ongoing cultural and creative debates that have plagued Ubisoft's recent releases.
What a mess.
Changing a Story Midstream: A Developer's Nightmare
Anyone who's worked on a game knows that making major narrative or character changes late in development is unthinkable. It’s like trying to fix the foundations of a house after the roof is already in place!
Assassin's Creed Shadows was initially touted as a feature-complete game, with an official release date pushed back and now set for Black History Month - Feb 2025. Yet here we are, witnessing Ubisoft scramble to rewrite Yasuke's story and alter how he's portrayed? WTF lol... From my perspective, this undertaking is no less than a mad dash to rectify years of purposeful oversight—something that should've been addressed long before the game's "feature-complete" milestone was achieved.
It isn't just about tweaking dialogue or cutting a problematic line; it's about completely restructuring gameplay mechanics, the narrative arcs, and even the character's identity to align better with the expectations of historical accuracy and audience sensitivity. This level of change requires reworking the design of multiple systems and re-contextualizing the game’s content, all of which is expensive, time-consuming, and highly prone to generating new issues in the process... None of which Ubisoft has endless amounts to be able to deal with these days.
Endymion Rumors Support The Chaos at Ubisoft
Endymion recently covered the situation in an extremely exposing video. In it, he stated,
“The game did first include a male Japanese main character, but they were swapped sometime during 2020, according to my source, for Yasuke instead.”
...and why Ubisoft chose Yasuke over this male Japanese character? Endymion said:
“They said that Ubisoft was heavily influenced by the sociopolitical events of the time with stuff like — and no, I’m not kidding — George Floyd dying, the riots, and Black Lives Matter exploding in support.”
He later added:
“Ubisoft may have opted to include Yasuke in order to pander to identity politics because of Black Lives Matter.”
A Desperate Move That Alienates Everyone
The rumored changes reflect a clear attempt to satisfy critics who raised concerns over the original portrayal of Yasuke—concerns that ranged from the game's historical inaccuracy to... wait for it...giving Yasuke a hip-hop musical theme. Many folks felt that this was not only completely inappropriate, but extremely disrespectful to Japanese heritage. By trying to make these changes now, Ubisoft runs the risk of alienating every single person involved.
For those who wanted a more 'historically' faithful and nuanced portrayal of Yasuke (read: literally no one except Thomas Lockley to sell a book), these rumored sudden changes come across as a half-baked attempt to avoid backlash. Instead of embracing a well-thought-out representation, the modifications seem reactive rather than proactive—a response to criticism instead of a coherent vision from the start. On the other hand, players (if anyone?) invested in the game and the character as initially conceived might feel betrayed, questioning Ubisoft’s commitment to its original story.
And let’s not forget the developers themselves, who reportedly have been ignored by management in their calls for a delay. The rumors indicate that some team members had been pushing for changes or at least a delay for quite some time, but their concerns were brushed off in favor of rushing the game to release. The fact that Ubisoft management is only now addressing these issues—ONLY after MONTHS of public backlash and disastrous feedback from early trailers—highlights a troubling lack of foresight and respect for the creative process. This is a fire that won't go out.
The Cost of Not Listening
The lessons Ubisoft should have learned from past blunders are apparently falling on deaf ears. In the wake of the Star Wars Outlaws flop, it should've been obvious that rushing a game to meet these arbitrary deadlines without ensuring its quality is a recipe for disaster. With Yasuke, it seemed like Ubisoft was doubling down on its DEI mistakes. The move to add or change elements in Yasuke’s storyline feels like a gamble to appease everyone, but history has shown us that rushed, reactionary decisions rarely pay off in the gaming industry.
This desperate gamble could have been entirely avoided if Ubisoft had just listened from the beginning—to the developers and to the players. By incorporating genuine, meaningful representation and historical accuracy into Yasuke's character during the conceptual stage, none of these drastic, late-stage revisions would be necessary... But this is Assassin's Creed, where they've never had a real historical figure as a main protagonist of a story. Why now? They’ve painted themselves into a corner where no one—neither the fans of the series, the critics, nor even the developers—can be truly satisfied.
A Risky Gamble That Could Sink the Franchise
At this point, it's safe to say that Ubisoft is in dire straits if they’re willing to rewrite the portrayal of a major character this late in the game’s development cycle. Not only does this indicate a lack of proper planning and vision, but it also speaks to a company that is desperately trying to cling to relevance in an increasingly competitive market. The response to Yasuke’s portrayal highlights Ubisoft's continuing struggle to balance representation with authenticity while trying to cater to a diverse audience.
But taking such a risk is unlikely to yield the result they hope for. The original implementation, with its bizarre musical choices and awkward dialogue, likely alienated a chunk of the player base who saw it as culturally tone-deaf. Now, by ripping these elements out and retrofitting a new narrative, they’re at risk of alienating yet another part of their audience—those who might have already accepted the character as he was or are wary of last-minute changes made under public pressure.
Could This Have Been Avoided?
It’s wild to think that all of this chaos and uncertainty could have been avoided if Ubisoft had made the right calls from the start. It’s a painful reminder of how crucial the initial stages of character development and narrative planning are. By championing DEI instead of authentic storytelling, it's how a mess like this begins in the first place. Bringing actual historical experts on board at the eleventh hour, after having already established a character that was bound to provoke backlash, is not just careless—it's indicative of a far broader mismanagement issue at Ubisoft. It’s about more than just a delay; it’s about the cost of not doing things RIGHT - from the beginning, and about a company that seems to be in constant reactive mode rather than leading with vision and confidence.
In the end, this hasty rewrite might be the most telling sign yet of Ubisoft's ongoing struggles. It shows that they are aware, to some degree, of their mistakes but still lack the foresight to correct them in a way that isn’t rushed and desperate. Whatever the outcome of Assassin's Creed Shadows, it's a reminder that you can’t keep ignoring the voices of your developers, experts, and fans without eventually paying the price. Ubisoft's willingness to take such a wild, last-minute chance is perhaps the biggest signal yet of just how dire things have gotten.
~Smash
