Ubisoft has a long and awkward history of claiming its games are apolitical. From Ghost Recon: Breakpoint to The Division 2 and Far Cry 5, which famously caused a furore before release with its depiction of a gun-toting evangelical cult, Ubisoft has been desperate to separate politics from its games. Newly released mobile game Tom Clancy's Elite Squad may end up claiming the same, but its core story beats tie into far right conspiracy theories, and it's therefore about as far from apolitical as it can get.
Tom Clancy's Elite Squad is a free to play mobile game first announced at E3 2019. Described as a "military mobile RPG," it features characters from across multiple Tom Clancy stories and universes including Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, The Division, and Rainbow Six, including well-known faces like Sam Fisher. Gameplay falls into the usual mobile game trope of static gameplay based around timed attacks, and (of course) loot box and daily challenge mechanics.
So far, so free-to-play mobile game. However, Tom Clancy's Elite Squad leaves a bad taste in the mouth beyond its use of a heavily-criticized business model. The crux of this comes with the fact that the game's core story is firmly rooted in current events, specifically the Black Lives Matter movement and the worldwide protests that have occurred against discrimination and police violence.
Tom Clancy's Elite Squad kicks off with a cut scene that explains the context of its world. Protests against corruption and poverty have been spearheaded by a new group known as Umbra, who promise an "egalitarian utopia" to the people based around hope. However, Umbra is secretly controlled by a powerful lobby behind the scenes, and is responsible for deadly terrorist attacks to try and further create chaos to take over from the current establishment. Supposedly, all that can stop them is a new task force working beyond the realms of the law: a kind of Kissinger's Justice League.
The obvious parallels to Black Lives Matter can be seen in the imagery that Tom Clancy's Elite Squad uses. Umbra's logo is a black fist, raised in the air - extremely close to the usual logo used by Black Lives Matter groups - while the cutscenes of the unrest depict protesters up against armed police. It's supposedly quite subtle that the group is named after the Latin term for "shadow," and that the developers weren't more blunt by naming them Atra.
There's nothing necessarily wrong with gaining inspiration from current events, but issues arise with the roots of Umbra as an organization. In the lore of Tom Clancy's Elite Squad, Umbra was created by a defence contractor called Bastion, as a means to expand its influence and grow the power of its Apex surveillance system. In real life, there are many conspiracy theories around Black Lives Matter, with suggestions spearheaded by the far right that it has been created by powerful, shadowy individuals. In Tom Clancy's Elite Squad, the populace supporting Umbra are being duped, and those behind it are evil and extremely powerful. Those are the exact same beats being put out about Black Lives Matter by vocal, aggressive conspiracy theorists in reality.
The real world's conspiracy theories vary in their approach, with the only consistency being that they have been thoroughly debunked. It could be that Black Lives Matter is a money laundering scheme for the criminal underworld, or that it and Antifa have been created by George Soros as a means to destroy the United States - a conspiracy that comes hand in hand with rampant antisemitism. It's not as though the developers won't have been aware of the context here, either; after all, the President of the United States recently stated he appreciates the support of conspiracy group QAnon and has retweeted their messages in the past, so it's hardly as though it's an unknown, underground movement at this point.
Black Lives Matter isn't a conspiracy. It's a grassroots movement caused by anger about injustice, not a cabal of unknown, powerful entities behind the scenes. By trivializing it in such a way, particularly given how raw it is and how debate and protests look likely to continue for some time, Ubisoft is insulting the reasons behind the campaign and doing itself a disservice as a creator in the process. There's no such thing as just a video game, particularly with the cultural and financial importance of the medium.
If developers use current world events in their stories, they have a responsibility to use them carefully. Picking up Black Lives Matter as a jumping off point requires the creator to understand the context of what they are saying. This is doubly true if real world allegories are being used in a mobile game where its gameplay has no relation to its story, and that launched with loot boxes, an array of in-game currencies, and a whopping £99.99 microtransaction option.
It's not the first time that Ubisoft's Tom Clancy games have had bizarre undertones that fly in the face of the company's denouncement of political messaging. The Division is about as apolitical as a party political broadcast, with a deadly virus spread through bank notes leading to the launch of a sleeper cell of extrajudicial operatives and early game sections primarily spent shooting 'rioters'. In The Division 2 the action is moved to Washington D.C., a famously apolitical location, which has now succumbed to the Green Poison pandemic.
2020 has not been a good year for Ubisoft to say the least. The company has been struck with a number of sexual assault and harassment allegations, with reportedly the publisher covering up the actions of harassers for a number of years. Although there have been some suspensions and other repercussions, there is still a long way to go and there is more than valid criticism of senior leadership's handling of assault and discrimination.
If Ubisoft is looking for a distraction with video game releases to try and bring back good will, it's unlikely to get it, and that's particularly true with titles like Tom Clancy's Elite Squad. It's made even worse that beyond its core plotline, it is as bland as any other mobile game. The game is a perfect example of how video games can be Schrödinger's medium: both desperate to be taken seriously by the critical sphere and unable to act responsibly with themes and context.
Update: Ubisoft has just announced they are removing the 'raised' fist imagery next week.
Although this update is a step in the right direction, it's little more than a surface level fix for the larger thematic issues of Tom Clancy's Elite Squad. The protesters are still being seen as manipulated masses, and there is still a problem with the game depicting a nefarious force exploiting inequality to their own ends. It will take a lot more than the simple removal of some imagery to turn Tom Clancy's Elite Squad around.