Ubisoft today came under fire by the organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) due to the newest upcoming installment of the Assassin’s Creed series promoting the "hurting and killing" of whales within the game.
Freshly announced, Assassin’s Creed 4 is already brewing up controversy over its subject matter. The hunting of whales, or whaling, has been banned commercially for over 25 years, but the aftermath of such hefty whaling practices back then nearly brought many species of whales to extinction. Because of this, PETA had this to say:
"Whaling—that is, shooting whales with harpoons and leaving them to struggle for an hour or more before they die or are hacked apart while they are still alive—may seem like something out of the history books, but this bloody industry still goes on today in the face of international condemnation, and it’s disgraceful for any game to glorify it. PETA encourages video game companies to create games that celebrate animals—not games that promote hurting and killing them."
PETA catches a lot of flack for its organized support for animal rights, but the events that occur in the game aren’t available for analysis yet, so there’s no way of knowing for certain if the new game will promote whaling or if it’s simply a part of the game. It could be that Ubisoft intends to capture the times accurately more than highlighting one blemish on that history, but we won’t know for certain until it hits PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC later this year.
Via Venture Beat