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They're not happy at all about the way Japan has been represented in the game and have launched a Change.org petition to take action.
"Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of GRTV News.
Today I'm going to be talking about something that is becoming increasingly strange.
It's blowing up in a way that I never thought it would particularly."
"I'm going to be talking about Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Now this is a game that's coming out in November and it has this sort of divide where I think a lot of people, particularly those in the West, are really excited about it and have been looking for this opportunity to go to feudal Japan in an Assassin's Creed game and they finally got that and they're really excited to do that in a few months."
"But then at the same time, particularly the Japanese audience feel like Ubisoft has sort of cheated them a little bit, have delivered a game that isn't authentic to sort of Japanese history, alleging that it is to a degree racist to them as well.
And now there's a part of the Japanese community that are looking to get Assassin's Creed Shadows cancelled."
"Now they're doing this by setting up a change.org petition, which is, you know, an official sort of, you can go over there, you can create a petition for anything, bear in mind, but they've got an official petition over there and it's been signed by tens of thousands of people already.
So it's picking up a lot of traction. So let's take a look at what's happening."
"So yes, Japanese gamers have started a petition to get Assassin's Creed Shadows cancelled.
They state that the game is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history.
So ever since Ubisoft began showing off more and more of Assassin's Creed Shadows, the game has faced an increasingly large amount of backlash from Japanese gamers."
"Many have shown frustration with the representation of the country and its culture in the upcoming game.
And now this has culminated in a change.org petition that wants to see the game cancelled by Ubisoft.
So far, the petition has already garnered over 25,000 signatures, with over 13,000 signing within the last 24 hours, as of writing."
"Bear in mind, I wrote this nearly a day ago now.
So we'll go into the petition a minute and see where it's up to.
The petition specifically states, following Google translation, recently, the lack of historical accuracy and cultural respect has been a serious issue regarding the upcoming game Assassin's Creed Shadow by game developer Ubisoft."
"The game is based on Japanese samurai and ignores the fact that the samurai were higher, a higher class of warrior, and should have been Gokenin or servants of nobles.
In fact, the first European to receive the title of samurai, William Adams, Mura Anjin, served Tokugawa Ieyasu as a 250-koku hatamoto, which maybe the translations butchered parts of that, but I wouldn't know."
"I'm not hugely versed in Japanese history myself.
But anyway, in this history, and this is the key paragraph.
So in this history, Ubisoft continues to misunderstand the nature and role of samurai.
This is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history."
"It may also be linked to Asian racism.
We call on Ubisoft to immediately cancel the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows and show sincere research and respect for Japanese history and culture.
Now, the petition was only started on June 19th and seems to be picking up more and more traction."
"Ubisoft has yet to comment on the matter, but has previously stated that the game was developed while tapping the expertise of its Tokyo and Osaka studios.
So let's quickly go over to the petition."
"And we can see now, again, I wrote the piece yesterday.
It was like 25,000.
It's at 35,000 signatures now.
And yeah, next goal is 50,000."
"Now, I'm not too sure exactly what number of signups is going to be required before some action is taken, if action is taken.
Ubisoft hasn't commented on this petition at all yet.
And to be honest, I'm not too sure they ever will."
"You know, this happens all the time with games when something happens and not just games, with entertainment as a whole.
Something isn't exactly up to snuff to one part of the community and they show a lot of outrage about it."
"And usually it blows over.
But again, you know, we'll see whether this is the case.
The point with this game, though, is that they feel like the representation of Japan that has been offered up in this title, and particularly surrounding the way that Samurai Incorporated, by the looks of things, is just fundamentally incorrect."
"And again, I think the key words that they use is a serious insult to Japanese culture and history.
It may also be linked to Asian racism.
Again, we'll have to see where this goes."
"Assassin's Creed Shadows is slated to debut on November 15th, I believe.
So it's still five months away, four, five, four months away.
Meaning this petition could get serious traction in the time between then.
But we'll have to stay tuned and see what happens."
"If anything significant does happen from now on, we'll be sure to keep you posted and updated.
So stay tuned for that.
But otherwise now, this has been my episode of GLTV News Today."
"I'll be back now tomorrow for the next one of the week.
So keep an eye out for that.
And otherwise, yeah, I hope you enjoy your Wednesday and I'll see you on the next one."
