Ubisoft has brought us numerous fan-favorite titles like 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Splinter Cell and Assassins Creed. Yet despite their popular titles, Ubisoft cannot manage to stay in the limelight without shining a light on their 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:awful company culture.
Recently, Ubisoft has found themselves facing bac🦩klash after releasing a trailer for their upcoming mobile game, Tom Clancy's Elite Squad.
Brief Overview Of The Elite Squad Fiasco
Elite Squad recently launched for mobile platforms, and players are greeted to the intro cutscene above. UMBRA is an evil organization that is lying to peo♔ple with the promise of overthrowing governments to promote a truly egalitarian society, but in realᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚity, they want chaos.
The image above is what caused many to raise an eyebrow because UMBRA's calling card is a raised black fist. For those unaware, the raised black fist is famously used by numerous groups throughout history that fought against oppressive political systems. From anti-fascist groups in the 1930s to socialist circles to Black rights activists, the raised fist is a well-known symbol of solidarity. Even if you are not aware of the 🐬history behind the symbol, it has been televised recently with the growing coverage of protests in the United States and Black Lives Matter groups. For Ubisoft to tie the raised fist with a group hellbent on chaos feels like a sleazy dog whistle that𓆏 connects protesters to domestic terrorists.
Official Statement From Ubisoft
Ubisoft's apology feels hollow. The issue many found with the game's cutscene was not just the raised fist, but the entire narrative. The opening lines of the cutscene state that the world is in chaos due to poverty, corruption, and war. It does not take a genius to look outside and see that these are issues on everyone's mind, now more than ever, and a to🥀pic that should be approached with some care.
Let's say Ubisoft removes the raised fist and replaces it with some c♊artoonishly evil skull or some other symbol - that does not change the fact the player is meant to be fighting protestors. Sure, UMBRA higher-ups are a shadowy corrupt bunch, but what about the foot soldiers that are fighting for the egalitarian world they were promised? There is potential for a nuanced story that tackles groups taking advantage of people angry at the status quo. Fans might not even be so avoidant in tackling a contemporary story if it also painted shadowy corruption in the military group you play, allow for multiple perspectives, and just have some sort of depth. However, that is not the case in Elite Squad; it's another one-dimensional good guys in the military stopping the bad guys story.
Ubisoft Knows What They Are Doing; They're Not Dumb, They Just Don't Care.
It feels silly to think large companies do not know what they are doing when they release something controversial. For nobody to say, "hey, this might get some pushback" at some point in this game's progress is hard to believe. What is believable is using the controversy as a guerilla marketing tactic to drive up engagement. You get more eyes on a game that many would roll their eyes at under normal circumstances because it is another freemium 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:mobile game. We don't need to speculate too much on whether or not this controversy was a marketing gimmick, because some contract writers for Elite Squad sp🙈oke up.
Aಌbove is Bertine van Hövell voicing their confusion at the cinematic💦 because they were told UMBRA was supposed to be like a SPECTRE-esque organization.
Brendan Gibbons, another hired writer for Elite Squad, also voiced his disdain for꧟ Ubisoft's marketing angle. For Brendan, the issue boiled down to systemic failures at Ubisoft, where lack of communication and diverse voices led to꧂ this event.
Controversy drives clicks, and a publisher like Ubisoft is no stranger to it. Look at the marketing for Far Cry 5, which leaned on the idea that the antagonists were an alt-right group, only for the game to rarely address the topic. There was outcry from both left and right- leaning fans, adding to the overall attention the game received. In the same vein, we will not be surprised if Elite Squad barely fleshes out the story aside from th🙈e intro cutscene and is just some bland mobile game.
The Narrative Choices Are Not Surprising
To say that Ubisoft is now all of a sudden getting political is laughable. Many of Ubisoft's games, albeit fun, deal with political issues𓆏. Tom Clancy books and games have always had their fair share of pro-military and pro-government messages. Occasionally you have plotlines that involve corruption within government agencies, like Splinter Cell: Conviction. But at the end of the day, the goal is always returning order by reinstating the status quo.
Unfortunately, none of Ubisoft's actions are surprising because they just want cash. Ubisoft has touted 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:hollow symbolic gestures of promoting diversity, being proud of having a female protagonist in the Assassin's Creed franchise, while simultaneously ignoring sexual harassment in their own company and creating a for workers. Do Ubisoft executives agree with the message in Elite Squad's intro? Maybe not, 🍒but it's a moot point: for Ubisoft, this is just another opportunity to rile up people for some quick cash.