Marc-Alexis Coté, producer of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, responded to Elon Musk’s criticismwho had joined the chorus of accusations made against Ubisoft when the character of Yasuke was presented, according to some the result of choices linked to the so-called “woke culture”.
On that occasion Musk relaunched the post of a user who supported the thesis according to which the samurai of African origin had been chosen as a co-protagonist, in his opinion in contrast with the historical reality of feudal Japan, solely for issues related to concepts as diversity, equity and inclusion.
“DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion, ed.) kills art”, wrote the owner of Twitter, thus demonstrating support the same theses and to legitimize them on his social platform: an attitude that deeply affected Coté.
The manufacturer’s reaction
When some players blamed Assassin’s Creed Shadows for Yasuke’s role,” Musk’s tweet it generated emotions in me“, explained the producer, “and the first thing I wanted to do was go back to X, which I had deleted, and respond to him.”
“But I stopped. I have a mindfulness app on my phone, and so I tried to use it to explore the emotions that tweet had generated. It’s sad, but for me Elon is simply fueling the hate. I had a lot of not-so-nice answers in mind.”
Coté, however, realized that responding to Musk at that moment would not have helped the cause. “Attacking someone like Elon certainly wouldn’t have allowed me to convince people of our point of view as a team. Yasuke is very tied to the history of the franchise and how we make our choices.”
“What Musk is talking about is not the game we are making,” the producer continued. “People will have to try it to understand, what if after the first eleven minutes and forty-seven seconds they won’t be convinced about what we’re doing, we can talk about it.”
Why this moment in particular? “I rewatched the game recently and thought ‘the answer is here!’ I can only hope that users keep an open mind and see the game for what it is: an Assassin’s Creed chapter, and I believe the best we’ve ever made.”
