The other day we reported that PETA took offense to the whaling feature in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Fag. Ubisoft has since released a statement in response to PETA’s protest and speaking to the folks at Polygon, Ubisoft’s senior PR manager, Stone Chin, they basically stated that while they do not condone the act of whaling, the setting of the whole Assassin’s Creed franchise is based around history (to a certain extent) so for them to include acts such as whaling is congruent with that period in time.“History is our playground in Assassin’s Creed. Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is a work of fiction that depicts the real events during the golden era of pirates. We do not condone illegal whaling, just as we don’t condone a pirate lifestyle of poor hygiene, plundering, hijacking ships, and over-the legal-limit drunken debauchery.”
PETA’s Matt Bruce however thought differently and was quoted as saying, “There are so many creative minds at Ubisoft that are involved with the Assassin’s Creed series that we find it really disappointing that they feel the need to glorify whaling […] PETA encourages video game companies to create games that celebrate animals, not games that promote hurting and killing them.” In any case both parties have made their statements and it does not look like Ubisoft will be making any changes anytime soon.
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