Ubisoft apologised for a US-related joke promoting The Division 2

The United States has recently once again faced the problem of the government shutdown due to the unresolved issue with financing Trump’s notorious wall on the border with Mexico. This is an obviously sensitive topic to discuss on its own, and Ubisoft acted a bit ignorant while promoting the upcoming closed beta for The Division 2 thus adding fuel to the fire.

Ubisoft emailed the recent newsletter to its subscribers yesterday reminding of the aforementioned closed beta. Along with several details on the testing period, the developers included a highly offensive – given the circumstances – title for its newsletter, which literally reads as follows: “Come see what a real government shutdown looks like in the private beta.” One may say that this is a great example of targeted advertising while making clever use of the existing problems, but The Division series tells the fictional story of the fallen United States, which is already controversial for the US gaming community in the first place. And making fun of real issues in the country doesn’t really help to advertise the game.

Ubisoft was fast enough to respond to the wave of displeasure starting to emerge and apologised for its PR naming choices claiming it was an error. This case continues the series of Ubisoft’s apologies towards its community, which has recently started with the DLC for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and the controversy over some forced story decisions. You can learn more on the matter in our Weekly News Digest through the link.