Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag has gotten a suitable amount of attention since its official reveal earlier this week – we should have a first look on the site by the time you read this – but not all of it is positive. PETA, or rather the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, isn’t too keen on one particular element of the game, where main hero Edward Kenway can hunt after whales, Moby Dick style, if the situation calls for it.
VentureBeat reached out to the PETA reps, who 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.”
However, Ubisoft, continuing to be the calm publisher it is, has stated that the work is nothing more than historical fiction. “History is our playground in Assassin’s Creed. Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag is a work of fiction that depicts the real events during the Golden Era of Pirates,” the company said in a statement. “We do not condone illegal whaling, just as we don’t condone a pirate lifestyle of poor hygiene, plundering, hijacking ships, and over the legal limit drunken debauchery. “
Assassin’s Creed IV hits stores on October 29th for various platforms.
