Assassin's Creed Shadows has found itself in yet more trouble, this time over a collector's figurine depicting protagonists Yasuke and Naoe alongside a one-legged Torii gate.
As reported by IGN, collectible company PureArts said yesterday that it is "reworking the design" of its Qlectors Yasuke & Naoe figurine, which it says had an "insensitive design" that caused "concerns" from which it has subsequently learned.
The figurine in question was originally revealed back in September and depicted the two protagonists of Assassin's Creed Shadows next to (or atop, in Naoe's case) a Torii gate with one pillar instead of the standard two.
If you're not familiar with Torii gates, they can be found near Japanese religious shrines, and they traditionally represent the boundary between the human and divine realms.
The one-legged Torii gate, however, has specific significance; as IGN points out, perhaps the most famous one-legged Torii gate in the world can be found at Nagasaki's Sanno shrine, and it stands as a memorial to the devastation caused by the atomic bomb being dropped on the city in 1945.
It's unlikely that Ubisoft or PureArts intended to cause any offense by depicting a one-legged Torii gate in the figurine, but this is just the latest blunder in a series of misfortunes that have surrounded Assassin's Creed Shadows since its announcement.
Almost as soon as the game was revealed, some began to take exception to the depiction of protagonist Yasuke (a real-life historical figure) as a samurai, a point about which those taking offense say there is some contention.
This isn't even the first time an ancillary piece of media or art relating to Assassin's Creed Shadows has caused controversy.
Back in July, Ubisoft found itself in trouble when a piece of art in the game's Collector's Edition artbook was found to use the flag of a Sekigahara re-enactment group without its permission.
Not only that, but Assassin's Creed Shadows was also recently delayed to February next year as part of what appears to be a company-wide strategy rethink at Ubisoft, triggered by the underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws.
This is all against the backdrop of some of Ubisoft's investors urgently suggesting a change in management, with bosses the Guillemots and Tencent reportedly considering taking the company private in response.
