Ubisoft initially brushed off accusations of inappropriate content in their recent video game advertisements, claiming that the offending images were “technical errors.” The backlash to the company’s ads for its popular “Assassin’s Creed” games has been intense, with many users pointing out the coincidences that the ads featured imagery and slogans which seemed to lean towards themes of misogyny and racism.
The party line form Ubisoft has been the same since the story first broke: that the images and slogans seen in the advertisements were the result of a “technical error,” rather than any conscious decision on the part of the company. However, many fans are understandably skeptical of this explanation, feeling that such “errors” wouldn’t be seen in any other large-scale advertising campaign. The fact that all of the ads contain similar imagery and messaging also raises questions about Ubisoft’s insistence that this was all a simple mistake.
Ubisoft has come out and apologized for their “technical errors,” but it remains to be seen if they will take any steps to address the root cause of the problem. It will be interesting to see how they handle this issue going forward and if they will take any real measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
For now, it’s important to keep an open mind and allow Ubisoft the opportunity to make it right. Fans of the franchise — and the wider gaming public — will be watching closely to see how the company responds to this issue. It’s not enough for them to simply offer an apology; they need to take real steps to prevent this from happening again. Let’s hope they are up to the task.