Ubisoft CEO’s memo to employees leaked: The situation is now much worse

Ubisoft is experiencing one of the worst times in its recent history: After numerous controversies surrounding artistic designs, merchandise and the abrupt cancellation of the Tokyo Games Show, the company is now postponing the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

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Ubisoft has an uphill battle ahead of it with the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and the mountainous journey to launch began when the company revealed the setting and main protagonists. Fans accused Ubisoft of misrepresenting Japanese culture with their design choices, while also pointing to Ubisoft representatives who said Shadows is loosely based on history. In addition, Ubisoft released a trailer that showed choppy animationsand thus only pour more oil on the fire.

In this trailer video, the comment section was taken over by bot accounts who posted positive comments that received a suspicious number of likes. These comments have since been removed, and Ubisoft has been accused of purchasing bot accounts to try to influence public perception of Shadows. In addition, the company has been accused of misrepresenting Japanese culture with its Shadows merchandise by including what some claim is a depiction of the One-legged Torri-Tor in one of his figuresFor those who don’t know, the one-legged Torri Gate is a shrine dedicated to the tragic event of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki.

After this series of fights Ubisoft abruptly withdrew from the Tokyo Games Show just two days before the scheduled date. Now the company has released a new update on the launch date of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Ubisoft has officially postponed the launch of the new game, pointing out that more time is needed to “Polish and refine the experience” in the wake of recent criticism of the “two unique protagonists“. Ubisoft said all pre-orders would be refunded and those who pre-ordered would get the first expansion for free.

But the suffering does not end there. Insider Gaming published an exclusive report Revelation of an internal memo from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. The memo was sent to employees ahead of Ubisoft’s scheduled earnings call and revealed some key details about Guillemot’s views on the company’s recently released Star Wars Outlaws and Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

According to the CEO, Star Wars Outlwas, which was launched with a very disappointing response from fans, has been reflected in Ubisoft’s sales figures, as Guillemot said: “Sales of Star Wars Outlaws initially fell short of expectations, despite positive reviews from gamers who acknowledged the game’s faithful portrayal of the essence and diversity of the original trilogy.” Guillemot also referred to reviews from publications by game journalists, such as “76 on Metacritic, 3.85/5 on PS Store, ~4/5 on Xbox, and 4.4/5 on Epic.“

The fact that Guillemot refers to critic reviews of the game rather than user reviews reveals a detail about how Ubisoft views, or at least rates, its titles, because right below that Metacritic rating of 76, which is based on 87 critic reviews, is a rating of 5.4 based on 2,248 user reviews. Guillemot seems to be using the wrong standards for his own source. Games should be made for players, not critics.

Ubisoft Mentoring Program “Eligibility criteria“

As for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the internal memo revealed that the launch date will be February 14, 2025, and that in light of recent negative feedback from players, Guillemot reminded everyone that Ubisoft is a “Entertainment company” and that it “The aim is not to support a particular agenda“.

Ultimately, Guillemot’s internal memo, the delay of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and the hope that Star Wars Outlaws will be fixed with future updates and a Black Friday sale all suggest that Ubisoft is in trouble – especially given the company’s stock price and a recent internal investigation launched by the board.