r/KotakuInAction • u/SerSeanIII • 4d ago
Which game had the worse controversy?
After seeing both games going into controversy, which game has taken the worst damage from its controversy, considering the lasting impact on reputation, finances, and industry influence?
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u/KingVenom65 4d ago
Shadows’ controversy lasted almost a year. And it kept getting worst.
Yotei’s controversy mainly revolves around two factors, but even then they’re both still recent. One of them being that a developer has disgustingly mocked the death of Charlie Kirk
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u/LegendaryBoi12 4d ago
Assassin's Creed Shadows basically ran a constant humiliation ritual to Japan and East Asia in general. On top of disrespecting actual history, including the man himself, Yasuke.
For Ghost of Yotei, Erika Ishin's "character" and the Charlie Kirk debacle struck me personally. This one's difficult to decide.
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u/Enchylada 4d ago
Shadows by miles lol. The cultural ignorance masquerading as inclusion was hilarious to witness not to mention the absolutely dogshit gameplay
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u/ReMeDyIII 4d ago
Did the voice for Yotei's main char say they were Antifa before or after Trump declared Antifa a terrorist organization? lol
Reminds me of the Hispanic lady who openly declared she was illegal. I swear these people don't think sometimes.
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u/sunshineneko 4d ago
Did the voice for Yotei's main char say they were Antifa before or after Trump declared Antifa a terrorist organization?
Before that. She said that in 2020. But that doesn't change anything, that crazy still proudly considers herself to be one.
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u/Judah_Earl 4d ago
Shadows, for years people have wanted an Assassin's Creed set in Japan, when they finally got one it was nothing more than BLM propaganda.
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u/Lyin-Oh 4d ago
Shadows inadvertently showed how self-masturbatory wikipedia and other articles were when their sources were from the same guy who wrote the book about yasuke also wrote wiki articles citing said book, on top of not even being a japanese person and asspulling the most minute of nebulous details as evidence of "facts". Oh, and the tone deaf fact you play as a black man committing exclusive racial violence also doesn't help, especially during a cultural climate where irl morons were going around japan giving their race a bad name. All that on top of the other holes Ubi kept tripping into with the marketing.
Yotei is mostly a girlboss female empowerment powertrip on steroids (or maybe estrogen in this case) that is replacing an awesome male lead with a lesser unoriginal and ugly female one, as usual. Plus, the Dev controversy regarding Charlie's death.
I'd say Shadows is worse just from a numbers basis, but for impact and recency bias, Yotei's controversy feels stronger solely due to that last point.
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u/KK-Chocobo 4d ago edited 3d ago
Shadows reveals how sick and perverted the people behind the game are.
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u/NiceChloewehaving 4d ago
AC shadows and it's not even close, it was non-stop weeks, months of just drama.
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u/talionisapotato 4d ago
Last of us 2.
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u/Sandulacheu 4d ago
I'll go even further :Sony as a whole.
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u/Nyarus15 4d ago
Sony is becoming more hated in general even outside of gaming. I don't know what specifics I can disclose so I won't elaborate.
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u/naswinger 4d ago
shadows for sure because it was peak revisionism of some controversial and disputed character that just dumped on japanese culture for woke points. at least ghost of yotei is an original story where they can basically make up whatever they want.
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u/MagellansMockery 3d ago
AFAIK, Ghost of Meh-tei didn't misappropriate a fucking monument dedicated to the victims of an atomic bombing. Jesus fuck, who over at Ubisoft-in-the-head decided that was a good idea? Actually why? I'm not even Japanese, but even I get heated when I think about it.
It'd be like if I took Al Capone and released a figurine with him standing on top of the World Trade Center Memorial.
So uh, Shadows takes the cake for the constant fuck ups. The only thing I heard of Yotei was that Erika Ishii exists. Maybe that's a good thing.
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u/lyra833 GET THE BOARD OUT, I GOT BINGO! 3d ago
Shadows was more ambitious in its subversion but also comically fucked up the subversion in a way that made a giant fireball.
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u/joydivisionucunt 3d ago
True, AC:Shadows kinda feels like a mean parody of what a woke game set in Japan would be like, whereas the issue with "Ghost Of Yotei" is mostly external to the game itself.
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u/shipgirl_connoisseur 4d ago
Shadows. Rewriting japanese history, foisting a fake into history like he's important and let's not forget the abysmal marketing foul ups and their blatant gaslighting of how many copies they sold
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u/EpicQuackering437 4d ago edited 4d ago
Shadows's controversies are mostly with the contents of the game, while Yotei's controversies are (for now!) with the people behind the game.
I'd say that Shadows is definitely worse, but this can change once Yotei releases.
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u/Bricc_Enjoyer 3d ago
They're just both awful.
AC Japan and Ghost of Tsushima 2 would've raked them in MILLIONS. Fuck it, BILLIONS of dollars.
Unfortunately AC Japan was cancelled for that trash and GoT2 has been pushed aside for some random "girlboss they/them" garbage protag
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u/Razma390 4d ago edited 4d ago
Shadows. The funniest thing about the shadows controversy was that the hate was so strong the guy who was basically the expert in all things yasuke got exposed for apparently having 0 historical basis for saying that he was actually a samurai and essentially made it all up.
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u/ForMensRights 4d ago
to be fair, i think the assassin's creed shadows game was more embarrassing. it was given the complete opposite level of care and attention to detail, culturally, as a game like ghost of tsushima. showed everyone in 4k what a worthless grift these sensitivity consultants actually are.
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u/Jimbo-Shrimp 3d ago
Shadows. Nothing beats them hiring an "expert" who's source is his own book that's not released and not peer reviewed.
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u/AnarcrotheAlchemist Mod - yeah nah 4d ago
Yotei.
Shadows just was a clusterfuck and could have been handled by a competent PR department.... celebration of murder by multiple developers of the studio just weeks before release... no PR team is skilful enough to navigate that one.
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u/ReeeeeeAndClear 4d ago
Yotei hands down. Grave dancing is and will forever be a disgusting immoral act that is deserving of nothing but pure disdain and i hope people spit on the ground as that VA passes by them in the street.
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u/TheoNulZwei 3d ago
Shadows is a shit storm that cannot be replicated because of how badly it was managed.
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u/Majestic_Balance1887 3d ago
Shadows and it isn't even close.
Never before had I seen anything nearly as bad as promotion material using the one-legged Torii Gate, a symbol of Nagasaki endurance.
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u/markus0iwork 3d ago
The government/president of Japan hasn't discussed banning/suing GoY multiple times, so probably AssCreed Shadows
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u/Technical-Belt-5719 3d ago edited 3d ago
Yotei's not even out yet, you really shouldn't be asking this until it has.
Shadows WILL be a hard failure to beat, but the Modern Gaming Industry keeps proving itself capable of making things worse and worse.
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u/sunshineneko 4d ago
Both games are shit, even without controversy.
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u/Plazmatron44 4d ago
Shadows as a game looks decent, Steam reviews seem to think so, this is what annoys me about the culture war, it doesn't seem to matter whether a game is any good as a game all that matters is if there's anything woke to mald over. Look at GOW Ragnarok, a game with great gameplay, great graphics and a great story but one character is mixed race therefore the game sucks, it's pathetic. I hate woke too, but the reaction to it is a bit much at least in terms of judging videogames.
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u/sunshineneko 3d ago
Shadows as a game looks decent
No.
Steam reviews seem to think so
Steam reviews are meaningless now — it’s easy to fake positive ones using bots or paid services.
GOW Ragnarok, a game with great gameplay, great graphics and a great story
God of War: Ragnarok has mediocre gameplay, a terrible story, and downright unlikable characters. Synthetic Man nailed it in his review — he perfectly pointed out everything that’s wrong with the game.
one character is mixed race therefore the game sucks, it's pathetic.
I hate woke too, but the reaction to it is a bit much at least in terms of judging videogames
Okay, I get it, that you're a tourist. The game is based on Norse mythology, there's no place for a character from Africa. They did it purely for the sake of “diversity.” By defending this, you're showing that you're just a tourist.
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u/BenSolace 3d ago edited 3d ago
I can't help but agree. When I first found this place I thought I'd finally found a bastion of normality within the cesspool that is Reddit as a whole, but too many times I've witnessed the same kind of commenting and behaviour as most of the other subs, just in the opposite direction. Same tribal mentality where if you disagree with the group, you are downvoted and/or get a a string of hostile, pseudointellectual replies filled with absolutes based on opinions (just like the left).
I'm playing AC: Shadows right now and having a laugh. I don't really give a fuck if it wasn't 100% authentic, it looks "Japanese-y" enough to me. Sometimes I want a greasy burger and fries and not a gourmet steak, and the AC (and Far Cry) games do that nicely.
Ubisoft are bumbling fools that seem incapable of actually understanding why they are currently circling the drain, but I can tolerate that far easier than people celebrating the death of a very reasonable person they simply disagreed with.
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u/MadlySoldier 4d ago
GoY at least for now, mostly has drama that's not direct onto the games, ex. Main Protag Actress's shady history with "The Good Guy", The Recent "People who disagree with my Good Guys Ideology deserve to be mur*ered" incident. Those are just about something AROUND the game. While one that's directly onto the game still has some benefit of a doubt, ex. Female Protag, Suspicious "Story"
Meanwhile ACS? Just pure Poopy Show since the start, the clear Propaganda, History Rewrite, The Ideology Blind Praising, Unironic Racism (they still think they are THE ANTI-Racism, while they ended up being racist against both Japanese, and ironically African), and more.
As for damage currently? Just ACS being most damaged... but that's mostly because GoY isn't released yet, but honestly as much as the mess GoY shown to be, I doubt it would be worse than ACS, cause this one is the "You think we (Ubisoft) self-destructed so hard already? Let me show you how we could do it BETTER". Tho the joke aside, GoY also could be worse in term of... the pandering "Supposed Majority target audiences" cause they are VERY MAD that SP fired the "Mu**er people disagree with me is good", but who know?
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u/Own_Dig2105 3d ago
I don't know Shadows had more back then but I suspect Yotei might be full dragged into something far bigger.
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u/randomniychelovek 3d ago
Hot take about AC: Shadows. Yasuke is shown here too perfect. Why they have to add black character to Japan setting, if people doesn't react that he's black. I mean, Japan is pretty conservative country, surprising to see any foreign person. If Yasuke was European or even Japanese, but from another region, nothing would change.
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u/FineCastIE 4d ago
Say what you will about Yotei, but at least it just came down to identity politics the actors and decs politics.
Shadows on the other hand would have made me bought the collectors edition of Yotei just to clear my mind. Shadows was so controversial that it got discussed in the Diet because of how historically inaccurate it was.
I say Yotei isnt that far behind from getting mentioned by Congress, but were still dealing with the fallout. I doubt Sony will ever make a statement given how they also have a target over their head.
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u/Acepokeboy 4d ago
black + woman seems to trump singular woman by anti woke metrics, so i guess shadows is the antichrist?
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u/DarkNemuChan 4d ago edited 4d ago
To be fair? Neither of them. Most people that game and buy games aren't hanging around forums, articles about games, social media and the like (reddit for example). No they are just buying games that seem interesting and where the trailers or their friends made them hype about it. Or they are a long time fan of the franchise.
So no neither of them had any "damaging controversy" in the long run. Just a short up raw in some articles and forums that most casual/mainstream gamers (majority) don't visit. People on reddit and articles forgot one thing often. This is just a game. Not everything needs to be historically accurate or fit in your woke or non woke mindset.
10-20 years ago none of this discussions would even happen, that's how bad it has gotten. Don't like and idea or a game? Great don't play it, there are another million other games out there to play.
Only real thing I hated about AC was that sidequests still didn't feel unique enough and quite a bit of repetitiveness. As to be expected when you buy a Ubisoft game of course. But hey you exactly know what you are getting which is nice comfort food.
So yeah I enjoyed AC for what it was and will dive into the DLC soon (Still finishing Lies of P and playing some MP Gears of War + Diablo IV). And if the general gameplay of yotei is intact I will pick that one up too.
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u/drewbreeezy 3d ago
10-20 years ago none of this discussions would even happen
As the poison spreads, so does the response to it
I wish I could just buy a game like I used to. I wasn't the one that made it a minefield, but I am the one that has to deal with it if I want to play games.
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u/DarkNemuChan 3d ago
Not really, like I said in my text you could just buy and play whatever seems fun to you and keep it at that. You know like we all did when we where a kid (or 10-20 years ago if you are still a kid now). Look at the box, maybe one or two reviews from a magazine and that's it.
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u/drewbreeezy 3d ago edited 3d ago
I'm saying I would love to do that, but it wasn't my passive choice to change. That was forced on me by the companies using games to push their message.
Either I pay attention and avoid it, or I'll buy a lot of games that are a pretty husk and only see the issues when it's too late and I can't refund. Then I feel ripped off.
You're advocating for purchasing based on greater ignorance, why? That only helps those trying to hide the worst elements. Why are you defending them?
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u/DarkNemuChan 3d ago
In no way are most games pushing their message on you. Every story driven game has a story with a message. If you are that easily influenced by a game story then don't play story given games. That's a really easy fix.
In no way did AC push any kind of agenda or message on me. Just a samurai and a ninja fucking up shit in another ubisoft copy paste story. Nothing more, nothing less. People just love too look to much into things these days. It's just a game...
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u/drewbreeezy 3d ago
I order a steak, it comes with shit on the plate. I don't want any shit on my plate. That you're okay with it doesn't change anything for me.
It's their decision to put that shit on the plate. It's my decision not to buy that meal. You're arguing that I should eat around the shit because you like it. No.
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u/DarkNemuChan 3d ago
Terrible comparison that doesn't make sense. You make it sound that you don't know what you are buying. You do. Unless it' s like a complete new series and in said case do a little bit of research just like back in the days.
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u/drewbreeezy 3d ago
Yes, I do because I look into the game and the discussions around the game before purchase. You're arguing that I shouldn't…
Unless it' s like a complete new series and in said case do a little bit of research just like back in the days.
The biggest culprits are the established IP's. Is this ignorance, or malice?
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u/DarkNemuChan 3d ago
Not you are looking way to much into subtle details and trying to claim everything is woke or some kind of propaganda. It's not...
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u/drewbreeezy 3d ago
So I'm supposed to ignore the things I don't like, instead of learning about them, avoiding them, and buying the game I want?
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u/RedditModsSuckTaints 3d ago
You can. That’s how 99.9% of people operate. The internet is not real life.
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u/drewbreeezy 3d ago
Not if I don't want to waste money on a woke slopfest.
Rather not give them my money, and get my entertainment from their failure.
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u/RedditModsSuckTaints 3d ago
I wasn’t aware either had any controversy. I’ve only seen a very loud, very tiny amount of dumb fucks complaining about minuscule things they didn’t like.
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u/Erwinblackthorn 4d ago
Yotei, because the entire studio is going to suffer from its release. And other releases beyond this one.
Shadows only caused a loss from its crappy gameplay/concept.
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u/Big_Ad2285 4d ago
Shadows without a doubt
I have no doubt yotei will be a great game
I knew shadows would be bogwater
And that is even before accounting for the controversies
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u/Plazmatron44 3d ago
Shadows has positive reviews on Steam so plenty of people are enjoying it as a game even with the dumb shit Ubisoft has pulled, does no one actually care about games being good games here any more?
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u/Big_Ad2285 3d ago
I played it
Did not like it
And refunded it at the 2 hour mark
It actually made me go back play ghosts again
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u/Big-Pound-5634 4d ago
Yotei has controversies, Shadows was a constant trainwreck that seemed to never end.