Assassin’s Creed Shadows statue pulled over ‘insensitive design’
A statue made for the release of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t see the light of day, after its maker received criticism for its design. Statue maker PureArts apologized on Tuesday for what it called an “insensitive design,” and said it’s reworking the collectible based on the game’s dual protagonists Yasuke and Naoe.
Pure Arts revealed its Yasuke and Naoe statue, part of the collectible maker’s Qlectors line, in September. The stylized statue features cartoonish versions of Shadows’ samurai and shinobi, with the latter leaping from a broken, one-legged torii gate. The statue’s broken torii gate was strongly criticized by some Japanese commenters, who said that the design hewed too closely to the Sannō Shrine in Nagasaki, which was half-destroyed by the United States’ atomic bombing of the city in 1945.
In response to that criticism, Pure Arts issued an apology on X (formerly Twitter):
We recently released an insensitive design. We appreciate and have learned from the concerns brought to our attention, and we apologize for the harm this caused. After reading and processing the feedback, we have immediately returned to the drawing board and are currently reworking the design of the Qlectors Assassin’s Creed Shadows Yasuke & Naoe. Stay tuned!
Pure Arts plans to release other Assassin’s Creed Shadows products as part of its partnership with Ubisoft: 1:1 scale replicas of Naoe’s hidden blade ($89) and Yasuke’s samurai helmet ($749).
Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Shadows in May, and the game quickly became a lightning rod for controversy over its depiction of Japanese history and its playable leads: Yasuke, a Black samurai, and Naoe, a Japanese shinobi. In July, Ubisoft developers addressed complaints over the game’s creative choices and marketing. In a statement to “our Japanese players,” Ubisoft said at the time, “We acknowledge that some elements in our promotional materials have caused concern within the Japanese community. For this, we sincerely apologize.”
In September, reeling from underperforming sales of and technical issues with Star Wars Outlaws, Ubisoft announced it had delayed Assassin’s Creed Shadows to 2025. The game and Pure Arts’ Qlectors statue of Yasuke and Naoe were originally planned to arrive in November.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is now slated for release on Feb. 14, 2025.
