Assassin's Creed Shadows: Ubisoft Had to Ignore the Haters
Guillemot explains how the formidable hate campaign surrounding the game was overcome
More than 7 months after its release, we can confirm that Assassin's Creed Shadows has proven to be a success: for Ubisoft, it was the second best launch ever, behind only AC Valhalla, and by July, it had surpassed the milestone of 5 million players. These results were far from guaranteed: as you may recall, the game sparked fierce controversy, and there were even those who proposed its cancellation with a petition.
A video to explain what happened
Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, explained in a private meeting for industry insiders how Ubisoft tackled the situation, also using a three-minute video specifically made to address the topic (via Gamefile). Initially, Ubisoft took the hit, surprised by the scale of the hate wave. This convinced the developer to delay the release, to better refine the product.
To overcome the crisis, Ubisoft had to stop focusing on the haters and instead think about the fans, those who would defend its work: it quickly became clear that a battle was underway, where the important thing was to demonstrate that Assassin's Creed Shadows was a game, rather than the message of an ideology.