Ubisoft Will Reportedly Take Legal Action Against Critics Who Harass ‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Devs Post-Release: “There’s A Team In Place To Monitor Networks And Act Swiftly In The Event Of A Targeted Attack”
According to a new report, in anticipation of the cavalcade of criticism that will undoubtedly meet Assassin’s Creed Shadows upon release, Ubisoft is apparently prepared to take direct legal action against any and everyone whose criticisms exceed ‘negative reviews/mocker y’ and cross the line into full-blown harassment.
Word of the French developer’s forward-facing legal plans was first made public courtesy of a March 16th report from Melinda Davan-Soulas, as published by French news outlet BFM Tech & Co.
Speaking to a members of the game’s specific Ubisoft Québec dev team ahead of the upcoming 2025 Games Developer Conference regarding the game’s development, Davan-Soulas learned that the Assassin’s Creed Shadows team was not only aware of just how crucial the game’s performance was to the company’s survival, but had supposedly taken this pressure to heart during the recent delay period.
“If the game performs moderately, we’re really in trouble,” said one anonymous employee. “If Shadows sells very well, we’ll be able to start breathing a sigh of relief.”
“The teams crunched like never before to finish it,” added another. “They really needed that extra month.”
“There are seniors who worked every day to complete it,” they further noted, “it was pretty crazy.”
To this end, one Ubisoft Québec employee told Davan-Soulas that the team was rather optimistic about Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ potential sales success thanks to its pre-order numbers, which are supposedly neck-and-neck with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, but remain below those for the franchise’s best-selling entry, Valhalla.
“Already, if it sells like Odyssey, which is the 2nd best-selling game of all time, we’ll be happy,” said the insider.
Further, Davan-Soulas noted that one of her contacts confirmed that there does exist a fear among Ubisoft employees that Sucker Punch’s upcoming Ghost of Yōtei, which shares a ‘feudal Japanese’ setting with Shadows, could outperform Yasuke and Naoe’s adventure, both culturally and financially, in the long-term.
However, no clarification as to how extreme this fear is – as in, was this a genuine true ‘keep them up at night’ worry, or a simple ‘We want to beat the competition’ sentiment? – was provided by either the insiders or Davan-Soulas.
On the topic of the game’s reception, one employee then revealed that in light of the highly critical environment it would be releasing to, Ubisoft leadership was taking concrete steps to protect their workers from undue harassment by Shadows‘ more fervent critics.
“We are advised not to post on social networks that we work at Ubisoft, to avoid harassment,” said one individual.
But more than just a simple ‘walk away from the screen’ recommendation, the company has also reportedly moved to adopt a concrete ‘anti-harassment’ plan specifically aimed at shielding employees from online attacks.
“It’s an initiative from Canada,” explained a representative from Ubisoft Québec’s Work Council (a primarily European concept, these groups exist to facilitate communication between a given company’s leadership and their workforce). “There’s a team that monitors the networks and acts quickly in the event of a targeted attack.”
“Contrary to what we’ve had until now, this is serious business,” the representative asserted.
While neither the representative nor any of her insider sources went on the record regarding the exact mechanics of the anti-harassment plan, according to a recap provided by Davan-Soulas, “Messages posted by Internet users on X (ex-Twitter), Reddit or even videos on Youtube will be closely monitored by a dedicated unit in order to react promptly to the slightest problem. Lawyers are already on hand to lodge complaints in the event of proven harassment.”
Just how stringent and sensitive Ubisoft’s legal team will be to critics – and what they will attempt to classify as ‘harassment’ – will ultimately be revealed in the aftermath of Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ release, which is currently on track for March 20th.
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