Lately, Ubisoft post on their Facebook page a new advertisement of their new game Watch Dogs Legion, but their advertisement led into a controversy. In the advertisement showed that there are five masked characters ‘DedSec’ standing in a group of people using the black umbrella
As you know at 13th June 2019, the citizens of Hong Kong began a protest, which still continues till today. This protest is against changes to extradition law that would make it easier to extradite people to China from the semi-autonomous city.
The same day the post appeared on Facebook an advertisement for Watch Dogs Legion, it enrages the people of China.
With the following caption:
“We do not know each other and we never met. But we stand for the same goals and gather here! It is time for us to seize back our city and our future.”
To enrage the Chinese was not the quote, but the presence of the umbrellas in the image, which is reference to the Movement of the Umbrella 2014 in Hong Kong, in which, the current protest bears some parallel to 2014’s, the protest use umbrella as a shield to protect themselves from tear gas and rain.
Ubisoft is famous for making political games, they responded whit an excuse, which remembering that Watch Dog: Legion is set in London and not China and that the reference was completely involuntary.
The timing of the advertisement coupled with the use of umbrella led many mainland Chinese to believe the company was making a political statement of support in favor of Hong Kong protests. Many criticized Ubisoft for posting a political opinion form official account and for supporting the movement.
Ubisoft posted an apology for advertisement saying that they had no intention of supporting the ‘movement’, they also delete their advertisement on their Facebook page.
This is not the first time Ubisoft gotten themselves on this kind of trouble, last time in the release of The Division 2, it led into another controversy for trying to inject politics into the game and other criticized that the game for not embracing the politics of its post-war Washington DC setting.
Watch Dog: Legion will be released in the coming 6th March 2020 on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Google staff. This is one of the most awaited open world game
