Ex-Ubisoft designer says DEI didn’t cause troubles, blames ‘Big Business Syndrome’

Kensuke Shimoda, a former Ubisoft Osaka game designer, pushed back on online conspiracy theories blaming the publisher’s financial and development problems on diversity initiatives, saying the real issue was what he called "Big Business Syndrome," in a post on X translated by Automaton.

Shimoda’s comments were prompted by a comic from manga artist Sadataro that attributed Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ sales to Ubisoft’s "DEI." Ubisoft has said Shadows "performed within expectations," and the game had over 5 million players as of July 2025. Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which included an African samurai as one of its two protagonists, has been targeted by anti‑woke attacks since release, including from Elon Musk — who was later ratio’d by whoever runs the official Assassin’s Creed X account.

Some critics have argued the company’s financial fallout vindicates those attacks. Shimoda, who worked at Ubisoft from 2021 to 2024, said unequivocally that DEI initiatives "didn’t wield that much influence" and were "actually beneficial" for expansion into South America and the Middle Eastern territories.

He pointed to an "excessively low turnover rate" and a "lack of senior/lead-level staff with experience," laying blame on upper management. Shimoda invoked "Big Business Syndrome," a term coined by Kazuma Tateisi in 1987, to argue Ubisoft has become risk‑averse while expanding.

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