A new report says that Ubisoft, which is developing Assassin’s Creed Red, is working with Quebec’s Japanese studio and consultants to avoid “cultural tourism.”

Ubisoft Quebec, the lead development studio for Assassin’s Creed Red (an open-world RPG set in feudal Japan), is working with Ubisoft Japan and external cultural consultants to maintain authenticity and sensitivity. For now, not much is known about Assassin’s Creed Red other than its location and the fact that it is part of the Assassin’s Creed Infinity project, and this is probably so that Ubisoft as a whole can focus on Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which is set in Baghdad.

AC Mirage will be released in 2023, and while it hasn’t been explicitly stated, it seems that Assassin’s Creed Red will be the next major title beyond that. Japan is a location that Assassin’s Creed fans have been clamouring for, and Ubisoft must get it right. While it remains to be seen exactly how effective this will be, it’s a good move on Ubisoft’s part to avoid “cultural tourism”.

As reported by Axios, although Assassin’s Creed games have often strived to depict locations accurately, this has sometimes met with serious resistance from white men in positions of power. The inclusion of Alexios in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey because “women don’t sell out” is evidence enough of this. It should be noted that the RPG development is also being led by Jonathan Dumont, a controversial figure whose role in the project is said to have led to the developers rejecting the work of Assassin’s Creed Red. Dumont is white, and it’s unclear exactly how diverse the team working on the game is outside of the aforementioned consultants.

Many games based on East Asian culture have been criticised for “cultural tourism”, where the culture itself is less nuanced, less fully represented, its unique characteristics more reduced and made more or less exotic. This is something that Assassin’s Creed Red clearly should not do. At the same time, it should not be mentioned that cultural consultants in Assassin’s Creed games are nothing new. Assassin’s Creed Mirage reportedly worked with many consultants to make Baghdad and the surrounding culture as accurate as possible, including even full Arabic dub voices from outside the region.

These consultants had already had a noticeable impact on the games. Assassin’s Creed 3, for example, originally allowed Connor to scalp his enemies and depicted ceremonial masks in one scene. Still, the consultants pointed out that Mohawk people do not scalp enemies and that ceremonial masks like the ones depicted are private. So they were removed from the game. Still, it is important to note that these advisors do not make the final decisions on a game, and any opposition is probably too much.

According to Axios, Assassin’s Creed Red is also essentially a test of the company’s reforms as Ubisoft’s Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility team oversees current games in development. How big a role this will play, as well as the various consultants and Ubisoft Japan, remains to be seen.

Forrás: GameRant