Not too long ago an old statement from late Nintendo CEO Iwata surfaced where he said that “Things that are praised don’t sell – it’s the things that are criticized that sell. It is best to earn a divided response.”
The statement fits perfectly on Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows where the game is extremely criticized for historical inaccuracy but managed high pre-order numbers.
The game is now facing a petition for its cancellation. Started in Japan, this petition is now at almost 40K signatures. Some Japanese fans are concerned about the game’s representation of the Japanese history. But what’s interesting is that most people voicing these concerns aren’t actually Japanese themselves.
One look at the top supporting voices and the general comments section shows that a huge number of people supporting this “Japanese” petition aren’t Japanese.
Some are complaining about Sweet Baby Inc. while others are concerned about “anti-Asian racism.”
This is not to say that Japanese folks themselves aren’t complaining about the game. They are, but most of what they are pointing out is related to inaccuracies in architecture and cultural norms.
