Can Ubisoft pull it back? I think Rayman is the answer
Ubisoft is finding themselves in hot water these days in that they have found themselves the target of a sort of boycott by gamers. This largely is a result of the Assassin's Creed upcoming release "Shadows" that features a black Samurai in Japan. This was insulting to the Japanese and got on the nerves of long-time gamers who are tired of diversity being thrust into all avenues of life. To add fuel to the fire, the mainstream media jumped to the defense of Ubisoft's decision to do this and basically all of them were attempting to paint anyone critical of this decision as being racist with large publications like IGN and Forbes basically calling all the people being critical of this decision morons who didn't know history.
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To make matters worse, it was clearly documented by the online community that Ubisoft was intentionally editing wiki pages about the supposed historical figure that the character was based on, yet of course Ubisoft denies having taken part in any of this.
Then there was the Star Wars Outlaws that to put it kindly, "failed to meet gamers expectations" but if you look on unmoderated forums, a lot of people were upset with how the game was attempting to bring "the message" to the masses and people already have a tendency to be extremely critical of anything that Ubisoft does because let's be honest here, they were attempting to force diversity in their games. For what reason and to accomplish what end remains a mystery that Ubisoft will not officially clarify.
They face a tremendous uphill battle because the gaming community is kind of an unforgiving bunch, even if it means that their boycott is going to put a developer that has released some of the best games ever in the past in a financial crisis that could result in their bankruptcy.
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Call gamers all the nasty names that you want, but people are kind of sick of "girl-bosses" in games and this is largely because of what has been done with LoTR and what Disney has done to the Star Wars franchise on screen. There have been hundreds of millions of dollars put into the production of these games and the gamers and fans of old franchises such as Star Wars and Assassin's creed are beyond tired of the constant excuses made by Ubisoft when it turns out that fans simply don't like their games.
This is, of course, all a matter of opinion. To me personally, I am tired of the forced diversity as well but if a game is actually good, I will look beyond it. I know that when there was a part in a Horizon game where the focus of a side quest was acceptance of a gay relationship it just kind of begged the question of "why is this in the game at all?" This is a story about a post-apocalyptic world, romantic relationships of any sort have never been the focus of anything.
So Ubisoft is facing the wrath of the market, and whether or not this is deserved is completely a matter of opinion.
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I tend to look at this as "self-inflicted wounds" because like all the streaming services and shows that are getting destroyed by public opinion for the same reasons, Ubisoft had the arrogance to think they would somehow be immune to this.
I have a solution for Ubisoft, but it would take some time to make it happen. One of their most beloved titles of all time, Rayman doesn't even involved humans at all, so there is no method of this becoming a "diversity" thing.
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I believe that Rayman Legends and especially Rayman Origins to be some of the best games ever made. There is nothing to diversify in a world that is just whimsically crude and downright funny. The fact that the game is simplistic yet visually stunning is just an added bonus. Given the side-scrolling nature of these games as well, one could presume that the development time on such a game would be considerably lower than an AC or 3D Star Wars game would be as well.
Ubisoft might already be realizing that this could be their saving grace because this was released to the public
In October 2024, Ubisoft announced that it had started an “exploration phase” on the Rayman brand, with Montpellier and Milan studios involved. This announcement followed rumors of a potential remake of the original Rayman game, codenamed “Project Steambot”, and the involvement of Ancel as a consultant to ensure consistency with the franchise’s universe.
In case you don't know who "Ancel" is, this is referring to Michel Ancel, who is the original creator of Rayman. If they were to make him the ultimate authority in this game development, and keep any sort of modern societal issues out of the production, perhaps things could turn around for this once-considered fantastic company.
I don't know what I would do if I was an executive at Ubisoft right now. They are in a bad place especially with Shadows because if they release the game in its current form they run the risk of extremely poor sales if this "boycott" stands. If they were to change the main character to be of Asian descent, they will invoke the ire of the people who believe diversity is the way to go. Knowing what I know about the gaming industry, the people who push the diversity narrative in gaming don't actually buy games, do although it would probably catch them some flack from the media and from perhaps some politicians here and there, the actual gamers might ease up on the boycott.
In the meantime though, I think everyone would be excited about a new Rayman game seeing as how there hasn't been a proper Rayman release in over 10 years. I know I would be very interested in it. In the meantime simply writing about this since the news about the potential for a Rayman game only came out this week, I am going to go back in my catalogue and play me some Origins.