The Japan set Assassin's Creed Shadows from Ubisoft is facing yet another controversy as collectible figure maker PureArts has removed a statue from sale over its "insensitive" design.
PureArts is "reworking the design" of the Qlectors Assassin’s Creed Shadows Yasuke & Naoe figure after some complained that its use of a one-legged Torii gate was offensive.
"We recently released an insensitive design," PureArts said in an X/Twitter post. "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 and are currently reworking the design of the Qlectors Assassin's Creed Shadows Yasuke & Naoe. Stay tuned!" The apology post was issued 27 days after the figure was revealed.
Torii gates are found close to religious shrines all over Japan to indicate a boundary separating the human world and the sacred. The one-legged Torii gate has significant meaning of its own, however, as one can famously be found at the Sannō Shrine in Nagasaki, located 900 metres from the hypocenter of the World War 2 atomic bomb which killed upwards of 60,000 people.
The new 6-inch Qlectors Assassin’s Creed Shadows Yasuke & Naoe is the perfect fit for any collection! Where will you display yours?
Pre-order your Qlectors now! ➡️ https://t.co/WZyKlHhl4E pic.twitter.com/SflGHO8JtV
— PUREARTS (@PureArtsLimited) September 19, 2024
The shrine was destroyed almost in its entirety, with the only thing that remained being half of the torii gate. It has been preserved in such a state as a memorial to the tragedy.
Some were therefore upset that PureArts used a one-legged torii gate in its roughly $70 figure. "The new six-inch Qlectors Assassin’s Creed Shadows Yasuke & Naoe is the perfect fit for any collection," it said in the announcement post. "Where will you display yours?"
Incidents like this are practically commonplace for Assassin's Creed Shadows as developer Ubisoft has so far apologized twice over similar situations.
Some expressed frustration with inaccuracies in the game's depiction of Japan, leading the development team to issue an apology and say the game is not intended to be a factual representation of history but instead "a compelling, historical fiction." This comes despite art director Thierry Dansereau telling IGN Ubisoft looked to make the game as "authentic as possible to match historical events" just two months prior.
It also emphasised its collaboration with external consultants and historians, but "despite these sustained efforts, we acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community," Ubisoft said. "For this, we sincerely apologize."
Concern was also raised when the developer used a flag from a Japanese historical re-enactment group in artwork for Assassin's Creed Shadows without permission. Ubisoft apologized for doing so but refused to remove the artwork from a presumably already printed artbook available in the game's $279.99 Collector's Edition. The historical re-enactment group said this was not good enough, but Ubisoft hasn't publicly acknowledged it since.
All this comes amid a significant delay to the game, which was revealed in May with a November 12 release date for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, PC, and Amazon Luna. Assassin's Creed Shadows now launches on February 14, 2025, however, and Ubisoft is ditching the season pass model as part of a bigger shake up.
This also includes bringing the game to Steam on launch day, instead of releasing it exclusively on Ubisoft's own marketplace and the Epic Games Store on PC. The return to Steam comes after Ubisoft admitted Star Wars Outlaws, which did not launch on Steam, underperformed.
A 2025 launch will put Assassin's Creed Shadows in more direct competition with PlayStation's Ghost of Tsushima sequel, Ghost of Yotei. This is also expected in 2025 and is another open-world action adventure game set in Feudal Japan.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot maintained confidence, however. "There's a lot of space for very high-quality games, and those two games can sell very well," he said in the company's latest earnings call. "The focus is to really make sure that we deliver a fantastic experience with this dual protagonist approach and two different and complimentary gameplays."
Assassins Creed Shadows indeed features two protagonists, stealthy assassin Naoe and savage samurai Yasuke. The game's story will weave between the two but players can otherwise switch between them at will as they explore Ubisoft's open-world take on Japan.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
