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Ubisoft has acknowledged criticism from the founder of an accessibility-focused games site on ableist language in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The publisher has said it will remove the text in a future update.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has received a lot of praise since its embargo on revisions was lifted, and many are excited about what the Viking-focused entry brings to the franchise.
However, it is also the subject of significant criticism.
Courtney Craven, Founder of Can I Play That ?, pointed out that a character description in the game contained harmful language. In a tweet, they shared an image of text describing a character as having severe burns to her face that she is trying to hide. Craven tweeted:
I did not include this in my #AssassinsCreedValhalla piece of impressions, but just as important to address. This is an in-game character description. It is absolutely unacceptable to talk about facial differences in this way. Game writers and others have to do better. pic.twitter.com/jOLpPzD6Oe
– Courtney Craven (@CyclopediaBrain) November 9, 2020
Craven added: “GF, who is a burned-out and spent many years ashamed of her scars, was sitting next to me when I stumbled upon that part of the game and the look on her face… I was embarrassed that it was his impression of this industry that I love so much about. “
Ubisoft responded, thanking Craven for their reviews and promised to remove the description.
Thank you very much for pointing this out – we apologize for unintentionally building ableism through this language. We will remove this language in a future update.
– Assassin’s Creed (@assassinscreed) November 9, 2020
News on when this update could be expected has not been shared.
Although the initial description is not great, it is good that such criticism is heard. It’s always important to hear the criticisms of the games we play, especially from those whose experiences we might be blind to. Hopefully examples like this make the whole media more welcoming to everyone.