Ubisoft And 'Assassin's Creed Shadows' Accused Of Ripping Off 'Warlord: Awaji'
After Ubisoft leaked its own DLC plans for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the company is being accused of ripping off the upcoming Warlord: Awaji game.
About a week ago, Ubisoft uploaded details for their upcoming DLC to the Assassin’s Creed Shadows Steam page, but quickly deleted. However, screenshots were taken and it was revealed that the DLC is titled Claws of Awaji.
The description on Steam states, “Feel the fear of being hunted and under threat on a mysterious island. Reclaim a lost treasure while avoiding the traps and ambushes of deadly new foes. Master the Bo (a new weapon type), unlock new skills/gears/abilities, and get over 10 hours of additional content.”
After this was leaked, an individual close to Darkmatter Games, the developer of Warlord: Awaji, has accused Ubisoft of ripping off the game. This accusation was publicized by YouTuber Endymion who first shared the official description of Warlord: Awaji on Steam that states, “Lead a samurai invasion into the mysterious island of Awaji! Recruit, promote, and upgrade your warriors while navigating the ancient world of feudal Japan. Use samurai weapons and strategies to conquer the entire island and become Warlord!”
It adds, “Warlord: Awaji is the second entry in a series of immersive strategy games created by Darkmatter Games. Step into the shoes of a samurai warlord, given special command and covert orders from the Emperor to conquer an entire island and recover a legendary treasure.”
After comparing this to Shadows’ DLC description, Endymion shared what his source informed him, “The person that sent me this claims that Ubisoft plagiarized their idea for their game and deliberately used similar language with Ubisoft's Awaji expansion stating that it's all about reclaiming a lost treasure whereas Warlord: Awaji says recovering a legendary treasure. The person who send me this is claiming that Ubisoft is ripping off Warlord: Awaji and since these are the only two games that apparently show up if you look up Awaji on Steam that this is Ubisoft yet again being lazy and just plagiarizing things even more.”
He added, “Which like I said previously already they've been caught plagiarizing a ton for Shadows in the past so this is not out of the realm of possibility.”
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However, the source did inform him that the Warlord: Awaji is distinct from Shadows, “As I was told Warlord: Awaji is being plagiarized and that game is, according to my source, being historically accurate in every way imaginable unlike Shadows.
“According to my source, Warlord: Awaji has been in the planning phase and such for about three years and has been in active development for one year total so far,” he added. “The game is set in the Nanboku-chō Muromachi period, which is an older period than when Shadows is set in. Warlord will let you play as a Japanese male samurai who leads retainers and the game will have zero DEI or wokeness at all. And the game has a world-class historian from Princeton University that's consulting on the game to ensure that everything is as authentic as possible. And the game will have native Japanese voice actors and the development team has members who are self-taught in Japanese too, and have also made multiple trips to Japan to places like the island of Awaji itself self to ensure their game is as authentic as humanly possible to the time period.”
He then reiterated, “And yeah this game's concept is allegedly being co-opted by Ubisoft for their upcoming expansion. I don't have more on that right now but that was what I was sent by someone that was very familiar with the project. Basically others who are making authentic Japanese games are being insulted by Ubisoft and Shadows presence.”
What do you make of this accusation against Ubisoft?
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