Ubisoft is the most recent business to appear on what appears to be an expanding roster of marketers removing their ads from Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter. The company, which may be the first video game publisher to do so, acknowledged to PCGamer and Axios that it has suspended advertising on the website.
Ubisoft did not provide a detailed explanation for its decision, but advertisers on X have been ceasing to run ads on the social network since Musk endorsed a racist post and Media Matters released a study that featured brand ads next to Nazi imagery.
IBM, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros., Sony, Comcast, and Paramount have all stopped running advertisements on X. Additionally, Lionsgate removed its advertisements, blaming Musk’s tweet for the decision.
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According to Axios, Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR advertisement campaign was still visible to X users as of Monday morning. It’s not clear when the company stopped running ads on the social media platform, though, as Linda Yaccarino released a statement denouncing Media Matters’ report as “misleading and manipulated.”
The CEO of X stated that “not a single authentic user on [the website] saw IBM’s, Comcast’s, or Oracle’s ads next to the content in Media Matters’ article,” and he called on users and advertisers to “stand with X.”
Not long afterward, X formally launched legal action against the media watchdog, charging it of “intentionally and knowingly fabricating side-by-side images showing advertisers’ posts on X Corp.’s social media platform next to fringe white nationalist and Neo-Nazi content.”
In its complaint, X clarified that in order for Media Matters to display advertisements next to antisemitic postings, it had to set up the proper parameters, which included following accounts that share fringe Neo-Nazi and white nationalist content.
Media Matters described the lawsuit as “frivolous” and an attempt to “bully X’s critics into silence” in a statement. The group added, “It looks forward to winning in court and stands behind its reporting.”
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About Ubisoft
Ubisoft was established in 1986 by the Guillemot brothers in France. Popular franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy’s have all been created or published by this studio. Ubisoft has its own game engine dubbed Anvil, which was created in-house by Ubisoft Montreal and has been used for most Assassin’s Creed titles and other Ubisoft games.
Ubisoft Connect is a no-cost service that unifies your Ubisoft gaming experiences across devices, platforms, and social features like achievements, leaderboards, and friends. It’s available on desktop computers, mobile devices, and consoles, and PC users get access to the 100+ game-strong Ubisoft+ library.
