After a catastrophic amount of fan backlash and multiple apologies following the release of Assassin Creed Odyssey’s second paid DLC, Ubisoft has announced their plans to alter the expansion. Shadow Heritage, the second episode in the Legacy of the First Blade saga, stole the limelight in a fervor of outrage after players found out they had no say in their characters part in a heterosexual relationship.
Ubisoft Attempts To Mend The Situation
After receiving extensive press coverage and enduring an onslaught of fan backlash, Ubisoft has promised to change the aforementioned DLC. They stated the following in a post on their forums:
“After hearing player feedback and discussing within the development team we are making changes to a cutscene and some dialogue in Shadow Heritage to better reflect the nature of the relationship for players selecting a non-romantic storyline. These changes, along with renaming a trophy/achievement, are being made now and will be implemented in an upcoming patch.
We’ve also been carefully looking at the next episode, Bloodline, to ensure the paths that players experience mirror the choices they make in game.”
It’s always encouraging to see developers listening to what fans have to say, especially when it involves such a colossal mistake as this. Freedom of choice was touted as a prominent feature throughout the game’s life cycle and marketing. This provided players with the opportunity to make the protagonist as gay or straight as they wanted to, an aspect which was previously praised by the LGBTQ community. That praise was rescinded upon Shadow Heritage’s release, whereupon the protagonist entered a heterosexual relationship and had a child shortly after, regardless of player choice.
After apologizing and explaining their mindset behind the decision, Ubisoft has gone one step further by actively altering existing DLC content. This move requires a lot of confidence that they can rectify the situation. Not only will Ubisoft have to fix the problem they created, but they will have to avoid making the situation even worse. This is a dicey situation indeed, but for the sake of fan restitution and the fulfillment of an otherwise excellent game, hopefully the situation is resolved well. The ball is in Ubisoft’s court now.