Assassin’s Creed Shadows has already gotten hot and cold, and now one of the figures of the Ubisoft video game has been recalled from stores due to an “insensitive” design…
If everything had gone according to plan, we would now be less than a month away from the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Ubisoft’s latest open-world action-adventure game, which received several complaints since its announcement, and finally – not because of them – its release date was pushed to 2025. Now it seems that the scandal involving one of the collector’s figurines, which we reported on earlier, seems to be resolved…
“Immediately returned to the drawing board” – promise the creators of the AC Shadows figurine
PureArts, one of the world’s leading movie and video game figurines manufacturers, announced a few hours ago that it has canceled plans to bring the Assassin’s Creed Shadows collectible statue to stores after the design was deemed “insensitive” in Japan. “We appreciate and have learned from the concerns brought to our attention and we apologize for the harm this caused. After reading and processing the feedback, we have immediately returned to the drawing board,” – read the statement issued via Twitter.
But what is the problem? As you can see in the picture above, the figurine shows the caricatures of the main characters of the video game, Yasuke and Naoe, the latter jumping from a half-destroyed torii gate. The image was soon associated with the torii gate of one of the pillars of the Sanno shrine in Nagasaki, which remained standing even after the American atomic bomb attack at the end of World War II.
In Japan, as the staff at GryOnline reminds us, it is a very recognizable symbol, and its use on a figurine may be considered offensive by many, especially in combination with cartoonish characters. At the same time, the creators’ apology is likely to be well-received by Japanese gamers.
Replicas of Yasuke’s helmet and Naoe’s hidden sword are still available for purchase at PureArts. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on February 14, 2025, and promises an epic action-adventure story set in feudal Japan where players can choose to play either as a deadly shinobi assassin or a legendary and powerful samurai warriors.
An important update regarding the Qlectors Assassin's Creed Shadows Yasuke & Naoe. pic.twitter.com/v0tXb00dnj
— PUREARTS (@PureArtsLimited) October 15, 2024
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