Assassin’s Creed: Shadows Will release in Japan with censored images to appease the Cero ratings board of the country.
To their honor, the company has announced the changes to inform players prior to the release of the game. The announcement was made on that of Ubisoft Official Japanese X account.
『アサシン シャドウズ』海外版(北米・欧州) と日本版 表現差異について 表現差異について 表現差異について#Assassinscreedshadows pic.twitter.com/v3xrcpwmf
– Ubisoft Japan (@ubisoft_japan) January 24, 2025
Major changes include the removal of the option to switch off or on gorge and amputations, whereby the Japanese version is unable to show such violence.
The announcement also contains a cryptic line that says: “A part of the Japanese audio played in the overseas versions (North America and Europe) has changed.” (Translation: Google)
It is unclear what Ubisoft means with this. Since Assassin’s Creed: Shadows It was announced that players were critical of the alleged dedication of the Ubisoft to historical accuracy with part of that criticism from Japan.
Speculatively, the changes in the Japanese version can be made for all the creative freedoms that are derived from the Japanese audience that know Japanese history better than Western fans.
Such situations make it important to remember that although the West is more trigger-happy with censorship (especially when it comes to something sexual provocative), Japan has his own problems with censoring violence.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows was set to launch on March 20, 2025 about Windows PC (via the Ubisoft Store), Xbox Series X | S, PlayStation 5 and Amazon Luna.