Ubisoft accused of using bots to promote Assassin's Creed Shadows

Gamers have uncovered suspicious activity in the comments section under the new Assassin's Creed Shadows trailer, accusing Ubisoft of artificially inflating positive reviews. The video has received around 18,000 likes and 80,000 dislikes from viewers.

The suspicions were raised by accounts with similar usernames, which consisted of a first name, last name, and four digits. These comments garnered almost the same number of likes—ranging from 3,400 to 5,100. Additionally, gamers noted that most of these accounts were recently created.

Another piece of evidence suggesting the possible use of bots is that all the suspicious comments appeared within four hours. Yet, every comment varied in content. This raises the possibility that humans wrote the texts, while bots later boosted their likes.

Some comments from users under the trailer include:

• “Ubisoft: How fake do you want the comments to be?
  Investor: Yes.”
• “I have more fun in this comments section than playing the recent Ubisoft games.”
• “The only thing that surprises me is that they haven't blocked the comments section yet.”
• “Bots DON’T buy games... No matter how many bots you use, no one is going to buy terrible games.”
• “Ubisoft: We're fighting against racism.
  Also Ubisoft: Japanese culture and Chinese culture are the same.”
• “Do you notice that the 'nice girl' bots defending Ubisoft were all created with a one-month gap?”

The most compelling argument supporting the accusations was the sudden disappearance of the bot comments from the trailer. They were either removed by YouTube or by Ubisoft itself. This raised new questions: Did Ubisoft know about the situation, and did they orchestrate this bot engagement?

Trailer

This situation has gained attention amid existing controversies surrounding the game. Previously, gamers criticized Assassin's Creed Shadows for its high price, choice of setting, and imperfect animation. Positive reviews could improve the game's image ahead of its release, leading some players to believe that Ubisoft may have resorted to such tactics.

Source: Tweaktown