"With Great Wokeness, Comes Great Brokeness"

Ubisoft is a game development studio based in France. They have had some success in years past, but in the recent past, they've gone woke. Their investors have paid a steep price. On 18 January 2021 Ubisoft was closed at €85.18. If Wolfram-Alpha is doing my math right, that is an 88% decline. If we limit ourselves to the last 12 months, Ubisoft closed at €30.76 on 29 September 2023. That is a 67% decrease in the past 12 months. The bad news is accelerating.

Ubisoft released what is called a AAA game earlier this year, called Star Wars Outlaws. It should have been a big hit. However, it featured a gender-swapped Han Solo, and a lot of bugs. The protagonist is dressed like Han Solo in the original trilogy. The leather jacket. The signature blaster. And more. So much so, that some were calling her "Ma'am Solo." Why? Because that is what Woke demands. The character in the game was also an uglified version of the model/actress they based the character on. Why? Because the Male Gaze is evil, and all women in video games, and increasingly in movies and TV, must not be beautiful. I suppose all of that could have been forgiven if it was a good game. Reviews concentrated mostly on the bugs in the release. There were a lot.

Ubisoft have another AAA game that was scheduled to come out in November. It has been pushed to February of 2025. This is called Assassin's Creed: Shadows, the latest installment in their long-running franchise of Assassin's Creed. It has been embroiled in controversy. After years of ignoring pleas to set an Assassin's Creed in feudal Japan, Ubisoft did so, but decided to feature an African protagonist. Why? You are raaaacist for even asking why. They also, despite claiming that they did a lot of research, included Chinese architecture, Japanese elements from a different period in time, a sword lifted directly from an anime, and a sign stolen from a period reenactors' group.

The Coup de Grace? Ubisoft released a collectible toy that features a damaged, one-legged Torii Gate. There is exactly one such gate in Japan; it stands as a monument to the destruction of Nagasaki.

To say that the Japanese are upset about all of this is an understatement.

If there is a single thing that Ubisoft has not done wrong, in relation to Assassin's Creed: Shadows, I can't think of it right now.

This a video from Andre, of Midnight's Edge. Ubisoft CEO Gaslights Investors over Assassin’s Creed Shadows delay! It is a 13 minute video.

Following the disastrous release of Star Wars Outlaws things are bad for video game developer Ubisoft, and with the recent delay of Assassin's Creed: Shadows, things are about to get a whole lot worse. So much worse in fact that the CEO of the company is begging the investors to please believe him when he says Ubisoft is all about entertaining Gamers and not at all about agenda.

Andre briefly covers the state of western pop culture, including movies, and comic books, before delving into the history of Ubisoft, and the current set of controversies.

Here is a video from a month ago in case you need some background on Assassin's Creed: Shadows. Ubisoft Apologizes for ‘Assassin’s Creed: Shadows’ History Rewrite; Deranged Journos Blame Trump?!