Assassin’s Creed Shadows boss Marc-Alexis Côté admitted he was emotionally broken by Elon Musk after the owner of X criticized the game for its DEI stance.
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Musk reacted to Assassin’s Creed Shadows featuring a potentially gay black Samurai as the main character writing, “DEI kills art.”
Elon Musk on X
In an interview with Stephen Totilo, a former Editor-in-Chief at Kotaku who now runs Game File, Côté detailed how Musk’s post broke him emotionally, “That tweet generated emotions, that…the first thing I wanted to do was go back on X – that I had deleted – and just tweet back. And I just took a step back. I have a mindfulness app on my phone. And I did a bit of mindfulness to try to explore the emotions that this tweet created.”
He accused Elon of feeling hatred while at the same time indicating he had a bunch of hateful three-word replies he wanted to send, “For me, Elon, it’s sad, he’s just feeding hatred. I had a lot of three word replies that came to mind.”
Nevertheless, Côté continued, “By attacking someone like Elon… I will not convince people about our point of view as a team.”
Elon Musk via CNET Highlights YouTube
He believes that players will be convinced of whatever his team’s point of view is (he does not provide any details on it) within the first 15 minutes of the game.
Côté said, “Yasuke is very, very grounded in the history of the franchise and how we make our choices. … We’ve got a super-mysterious historical character from which not much is known about. And for us, it was what we want in [Assassin’s Creed].”
He continued, “What Elon says is not the game that we’re building. People will have to play the game for themselves. And if, within the first 11 minutes and 47 seconds, they are not convinced of what we’re doing, we can have the discussion.”
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
READ: ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Makes Franchise History With Most Disliked Trailer Of All Time
“I was reviewing the game very recently, and I was like, ‘The answer is there!’ I just hope and wish that people can keep an open mind about this and see the game for what it is,” he elaborated.
It’s an Assassin’s Creed game, and I believe the best one we’ve ever built,” he declared.
Key art for Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Côté’s comments are not convincing given an internal Ubisoft memo confirmed that the company has pledged its allegiance to divisive themes in the form of representation and diversity and inclusion.
As shared by Jeremy Hambly of TheQuartering, the document states, “First, we want to make it very clear that we do not accept hate, harassment and other forms of abuse in any way, and we are deeply saddened to see the negativity and hatred currently spreading on our co-workers’ personal profiles, and on our and our partners’ social media platforms.”
It continues, “We are proud to represent the diversity and inclusion that exists in society as part of our everyday work. Representation is part of our DNA and will remain that way regardless of external pressure or influences.”
It goes on to add, “Ubisoft firmly stands for diversity and inclusion in our workplace and our games, and we believe there is no room for hate in gaming.”
Ubisoft has been melting down internally over criticism of their DEI efforts. Quadruples down internally. pic.twitter.com/j9GGmDKsCw
— TheQuartering (@TheQuartering) April 21, 2024
The company also previously employed Sweet Baby Inc. CEO Kim Belair and worked with Sweet Baby Inc. for its Assassin’s Creed Valhalla game.
Screenshot of Sweet Baby Inc.’s clients
READ: Ubisoft Appears To Confirm ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Protagonists Yasuke And Naoe Are LGBTQ+
Not only has Ubisoft made it clear where it stands on the promotion of divisive themes. A blog post attempting to promote Assassin’s Creed Shadows heavily implied that both Yasuke and Naoe are LGBTQ+.
The post states, “Naoe and Yasuke’s disparate personalities also lead them to have different relationships and rapports with other characters, and they don’t always feel the same way about people, nor do people always feel the same way about them.”
Next, they discussed romance options, “Romantically, they will also attract and be attracted to different types of people. Through the pair, players will get to experience a multitude of relationships.”
Key art for Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
Furthermore, the company hired Dartmouth professor Sachi Schmidt-Hori to consult on the game. Her biography on Dartmouth’s website states, “I am interested in investigating how gender, sexuality, corporeality, and power are represented and negotiated in pre-seventeenth-century Japanese narratives and illustrations. My first book, Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Narratives (University of Hawai`i Press, 2021) is on medieval chigo monogatari (Buddhist acolyte tales), which often depict romantic relationships between Buddhist priests and adolescent boys. These tales challenge a host of normative and moral standards we (academics, especially) internalize, including such ideas as ‘sexual orientation,’ ‘transgenerational sex,’ and ‘sexual agency.’”
It continues, “My current project is on the literary representations of “milk kinships” in pre-seventeenth Japanese tales, including the Tale of Ochikubo, the Tale of Genji, the Tales of the Heike.”
Screenshot of Sachi Schmidt-Hori and Ubisoft’s Brooke Davies discussing Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Of note, the official description from the publisher of Tales of Idolized Boys: Male-Male Love in Medieval Japanese Narratives, University of Hawaii Press, reveals Schmidt-Hori “calls for a shift in the hermeneutic strategies applied to chigo and chigo monogatari and puts forth both a nuanced historicization of social constructs such as gender, sexuality, age, and agency, and a mode of reading propelled by curiosity and introspection.”
Earlier in the description it states, “Sachi Schmidt-Hori begins by delineating various dimensions of chigo (the chigo “title,” personal names, gender, sexuality, class, politics, and religiosity) to show the complexity of this cultural construct—the chigo as a triply liminal figure who is neither male nor female, child nor adult, human nor deity. A modern reception history of chigo monogatari follows, revealing, not surprisingly, that the tales have often been interpreted through cultural paradigms rooted in historical moments and worldviews far removed from the original. From the 1950s to 1980s, research on chigo was hindered by widespread homophobic prejudice. More recently, aversion to the age gap in historical master-acolyte relations has prevented scholars from analyzing the religious and political messages underlying the genre.”
A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft
One of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ senior writers Giles Armstrong also previously detailed he held an animus against white characters, which is in line with critical theory.
Back in 2018, Armstrong reacted to a video of actor Chadwick Boseman surprising Black Panther fans writing, “Hey #gamedev. When I say in our meetings that representation matters, well… see for yourself. Everyone wants to see a positive version of themselves on screen. Everyone. There’s more than enough games out there with white men as the only playable characters. Let’s do better.”
Giles Armstrong on X
What do you make of Côté’s admission that Musk broke him by stating “DEI kills art?”
Further proof that these brands are now run by immature and unprofessional people who are unable to accept feedback on their ill-conceived fan fiction.
To paraphrase Pope Francis: there’s an air of f–gottry about Ubisoft.
Elon Musk Speaks The Truth: DEI Kills Art. Marxist’s response “your making me feel in danger of being killed, therefore you should be silenced, loose your job and be arrested”…. there is word they use for that type of society… oh yea communism.