Ubisoft Cancelled a Game Over Fear of Political Backlash
Also a new report on who plays games
A new report on a cancelled Assassin's Creed surfaced last week. Also, a recent study breaks down demographics of game players from around the world. All this and more. Let’s go!
Ubisoft scraps post Civil War Assassin's Creed game
An Assassin's Creed game where you play as a freed Black man during The Reconstruction period fighting the Ku Klux Klan was cancelled and called “too political in a country too unstable” by Ubisoft.
This is according to journalist Stephen Totilo on the website Game File. Totilo spoke with five current and former Ubisoft employees about the game. From the article:
In this Reconstruction-era Assassin’s Creed, gamers would play as a Black man who had been formerly enslaved in the South and moved west to start a new life. Recruited by the series’ Assassins, he would return to the South to fight for justice in a conflict that would, among other things, see him confront the emergence of the Ku Klux Klan.
Ubisoft received backlash on sites like Reddit last year for having a Black samurai in Assassin's Creed Shadows, and the article cites this as another reason for canceling the game. Ubisoft’s current finances also likely played into their cancellation of the game, as the company recently invited investment from Tencent and spun off part of the company into a new subsidiary named Vantage Studios.
“I was terribly disappointed but not surprised by leadership,” one source says in the article. “They are making more and more decisions to maintain the political ‘status quo’ and take no stand, no risk, even creative.”
The game was slated to be the next mainline title in the franchise, as was scheduled to release in 2027.
Who plays games?
What does an average game player look like around the world? The answer might surprise you.
A new report from the Entertainment Software Association (EAS) breaks down demographics of game players from around the world. Some interesting highlights include:
- The average age of players surveyed was 41, with 48% being female and 51% male.
- 64% of people interviewed say games connect them with other people, helping them feel less lonely.
- 77% say video games help them feel less stressed.
- 81% of players say playing games provides mental stimulation.
- 55% say their favorite gaming device is their phone, while both console and computer gaming get 21%.
In the United States, females outnumbered males 52-48%, and over 22% of players were over 65 years old. Puzzle games were a favorite of players, followed by action and skill & chance. Curious to find out more data or how your country fared? Check out the full report.
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Side Quests (more stories worth reading)
🐢 A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles deck for Magic: The Gathering is coming in early 2026.
🔫 Battlefield 6 had a huge start, with over 740,000 concurrent players on Steam shortly after it launched.
😢 The studio behind Hyper Light Breaker is ending development of the game, and confirmed it will be laying off staff.
🎮 Game Pass subscribers in some countries like Ireland and Germany will be able to avoid Microsoft’s price hike for the service, as long as they stay subscribed.
✉️ Almost 100 current and former employees of Build A Rocket Boy, the studio behind MindsEye, have published an open letter containing allegations of mismanagement that led to the "disastrous handling of redundancies" and "unbearable levels of overtime."
🎮 Sony talks PlayStation 6, discussing their current partnership with AMD.
💰 Analysts explain how the buyout of Electronic Arts will impact the company and the video game industry.
👋🏼 After Costco stopped selling Xbox consoles, could Target and Walmart be next?
🎥 A sequel to The Minecraft Movie is happening and is set to release Summer of 2027.
🚼 Baby Steps has a cutscene that is 28-minutes long for people who skip the game’s other cutscenes.
📺 Jimmy Fallon is working to make Wordle into a television series for NBC.
👋🏾 The original System Shock 2 was delisted from Steam last week as the company promotes their recent remastered edition.
📺 Upcoming video game Dispatch was originally going to be a live-action TV show before COVID changed their plans.
🕹️ A new exhibition in Berlin shows how East Germany greeted the dawn of video gaming with surprising enthusiasm.
🎃 Fortnite adds Jason, Scooby-Doo, Ghostface and more for its annual Halloween event.
📈 Round numbers: Megabonk sold more than one million copies on Steam, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 topped 5 million players and Skate reached 15 million players with its free-to-play trial.
New Releases this week:
Check out our article on 13 New Games to Play in October.
10/14: Just Dance 2026 (PlayStation, Xbox and Switch)
10/15: BALL x PIT (PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and PC)
10/16: Pokémon Legends Z-A (Switch)
10/17: Keeper (Xbox and PC)
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