Last year, Assassin’s Creed Shadows became a target for right-wing culture warriors ranging from random shareholders to Elon Musk. In a recent video shown at Paris Games Week, Ubisoft reportedly tried to take back ownership of the narrative surrounding the attacks and demonstrate a potential playbook for dealing with haters online. How much of it is just spin remains to be seen, but it’s an unusual move for a company that usually shrinks from controversy.
The video’s existence was reported by Game File, including a partial transcription of what it said and additional comments from CEO Yves Guillemot after it was shown to gaming industry members during an event at the conference. The brief presentation detailed the company’s version of events, positioning the game’s unexpected delay last year as a bold move.
Instead of shying away from criticisms lobbed from certain corners of the internet that Ubisoft was “virtue signaling” by featuring the story of African samurai Yasuke, it doubled down on polishing the game and highlighting the elements that made it Assassin’s Creed. So the theory goes, anyway.
Ubisoft has stopped sharing sales data with Circana who reports the software & hardware sales in the us.
First image the top selling games of 2025 as of June including AC Shadows, second image top selling games of 2025 as of July without Shadows.
Mat from Circana confirmed this pic.twitter.com/4WuKoSgRhP
— JorRaptor (@Jorraptor) August 27, 2025
“With our allies beside us, we found confidence again: To stand tall, to take risks, to speak up, even against the loudest haters,” the narrator of the marketing video says, according to Game File. “And by the time Assassin’s Creed Shadows launched, thanks to our fans, momentum was finally on our side.”
Guillemot elaborated on the pivot in a conversation afterwards. “We were initially surprised by the extent of the attacks,” he said, according to Game File‘s translation. “And we quickly realized that it was a battle, a battle with our fans, to demonstrate that we were, in fact, more of a video game than a message.”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ sales figures are in stealth mode
It’s an echo of something the cofounder said shortly after announcing the game’s delay. “I want to reaffirm that we are an entertainment-first company, creating games for the broadest possible audience, and our goal is not to push any specific agenda,” he told investors last year in an apparent attempt to beat the allegations of the company’s worst critics. Game File also reported that the company canceled an Assassin’s Creed set in post-Civil War America over concerns about political unrest.
Ubisoft did hit back at critics earlier this year. The official Assassin’s Creed account dunked on one of the most high-profile social media accounts leading a campaign against the game. But developers working on the game were reportedly also advised not to post about Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ release to avoid becoming a target of the harassment campaign.
How has this all worked out for Ubisoft? It’s hard to tell. Shadows was well reviewed at launch and sold well in its first few months. It was the third top-grossing game in the U.S. as of June, but Ubisoft has stopped sharing public sales data in the months since and hasn’t officially confirmed exact sales figures. It must have been happy enough with the results to move ahead with other delays. Ubisoft told investors earlier this year that a slate of unannounced upcoming blockbusters would take longer than expected to ship.
