Elon Musk called AC: Shadows a terrible game, and got an official response. „Is that what the guy playing your PoE 2 account told you?”
Elon Musk called Assassin's Creed: Shadows a „terrible game,” which was met with a comment from Ubisoft. Gamers mocked the billionaire, and a Larian Studios employee took a slightly more serious view of the whole matter.
Elon Musk has once again drawn the attention of the gaming community to himself. He had done this before, for example by cheating in Path of Exile 2, which he justified by the impossibility of defeating players from Asia. This time, he spoke negatively about Assassin's Creed: Shadows, for which he received an official response.
Ubisoft vs Elon Musk
Everything started with Grummz, also known as Mark Kern, a former Blizzard employee, who is very active on X. He posted an entry with an attached Shadows ad made by a controversial internet creator known as HasanAbi, in which he critically referred to Ubisoft's advertising efforts.
You can tell a lot about Ubisoft with how much money they are throwing at terrorist-platforming streamers.
This post reached Elon Musk, who decided to leave his comment. At first, he called Hasan a fraud, and then stated that "objectively, he promotes a terrible game just for money." This post, in turn, didn't go unnoticed by the person managing the Assassin's Creed profile on X, who responded with a short comeback about his cheating in PoE 2.
Is that what the guy playing your Path of Exile 2 account told you?
The response quickly gained immense popularity, and at the time of writing this message, it has been viewed about 15 million times. Besides that, it has garnered 360 thousand likes. For comparison, Elon's comment got 20 thousand of them. So, the users sided with the game, and in the comments, they mostly mocked the billionaire.
Grummz continued the thread, attaching a screenshot of an article stating that Shadows is selling well, but noticeably worse than Valhalla or other hits from 2025, such as Split Fiction. The game profile admin posted a short response once again, which garnered 157,000 likes.
Our game is out.
Ubisoft's profile also addressed the topic, posting a picture with the series' characters and the caption:
Where other men blindly follow the truth... Remember, nothing is true.
Paradox of big AAA games
The issue was addressed by several prominent figures in the industry, such as journalist Tom Henderson, who shared a GIF on the X platform, showing appreciation for Ubisoft's witty response. Michael Douse, the head of Larian Studios' publishing department, addressed this topic in a much broader and more serious manner.
I understand not liking a game. I understand hating a game. I understand hating a game cuz you feel it stands against everything you believe in -- but I don't understand hating things just because some dude told you to. Don't let people monetize your passion. Be your own dude!
In the comment, he pointed out that big AAA games don't reach the wide audience as they should, because the economy does not allow them to. They must be profitable: they cannot be too risky or original, and thus they rely on proven solutions. Companies are more afraid of discouraging the average player than disappointing avid fans.
Douse claims that this leads to a paradox where most big titles end up with ratings of 70-80 on Metacritic. The reason is not that their developers cannot make games, but simply that they work in a system designed that way.
Leaving it and taking more daring decisions could result in both success and failure, and no one wants to take on such responsibility. Following the established path is much safer, as it guarantees a steady cash inflow.
This isn't a problem with people but rather economics of risk within the framework of public companies.
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