Trivia Browser
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One of the game's dual protagonists Yasuke, an African samurai, is the first main character in the Assassin's Creed series to be based on a real historical figure, but his real-life identity and status serving under Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga has been the subject of a contentious debate among historians. There are few scholarly/historical resources available describing him and his life and no known resources that refer to him as a samurai, with the most common conclusion being his title was a retainer to Nobunaga.
His reveal as a main character in the game caused polarizing reactions worldwide on social media. Fans critical of the decision claimed Ubisoft misrepresented Japan, which had never been covered in-depth in the globally-spanning game series, by not having both protagonists be Japanese (the other protagonist, Naoe, is Japanese) and claim that Yasuke was not actually a samurai, while those in support of Yasuke's role and claim that he was actually a samurai called these objections racist and based on narrow-minded arguments and inferences, with some going so far as to opine that Asian samurai protagonists in media were oversaturated. This intense fighting lead to Yasuke's English Wikipedia article entering an edit war, with administrators publicly calling the Talk page "a complete dumpster fire". As of May 19, 2024, the consensus that was reached on the Talk page appears to be that there is still no historical evidence confirming that Yasuke was a samurai, and the article does not call him one when talking about his documented life.
The lack of clarity on his life allowed popular culture/media to take creative liberties in speculating who he was, often depicting him in adaptations as a high-ranking samurai, and Ubisoft seemed to be going in a similar direction. The advertising for the game at its announcement on May 15 described Yasuke as a "samurai of historical legend", and a press release stated:
While the header for this section is called "Yasuke: A Real-Life Samurai", this description seems to be carefully worded to stop short of directly calling him a samurai, with the use of "historical legend" elsewhere suggesting that they were aware of its unconfirmed status and were fictionalizing Yasuke for the game.
In a set of developer interviews with Famitsu published the same day, creative director Jonathan Dumont elaborated that they also chose Yasuke to fit with the game's story of a foreigner who fights off oppressing forces like the Portuguese slave trade affecting Japan while exploring a country unknown to him, stating that they "were first looking for "our samurai," someone who could be our non-Japanese eyes". The following day, the Famitsu article was edited to change direct quotes in the interviews where Yasuke was referred to as an "outsider" to being a "foreign-born samurai", and also completely removed the aforementioned quote, for unknown reasons.
His reveal as a main character in the game caused polarizing reactions worldwide on social media. Fans critical of the decision claimed Ubisoft misrepresented Japan, which had never been covered in-depth in the globally-spanning game series, by not having both protagonists be Japanese (the other protagonist, Naoe, is Japanese) and claim that Yasuke was not actually a samurai, while those in support of Yasuke's role and claim that he was actually a samurai called these objections racist and based on narrow-minded arguments and inferences, with some going so far as to opine that Asian samurai protagonists in media were oversaturated. This intense fighting lead to Yasuke's English Wikipedia article entering an edit war, with administrators publicly calling the Talk page "a complete dumpster fire". As of May 19, 2024, the consensus that was reached on the Talk page appears to be that there is still no historical evidence confirming that Yasuke was a samurai, and the article does not call him one when talking about his documented life.
The lack of clarity on his life allowed popular culture/media to take creative liberties in speculating who he was, often depicting him in adaptations as a high-ranking samurai, and Ubisoft seemed to be going in a similar direction. The advertising for the game at its announcement on May 15 described Yasuke as a "samurai of historical legend", and a press release stated:
"Ubisoft Quebec wanted to include a Samurai, and Yasuke's story was open-ended enough to allow for creativity; there are still plenty of questions and speculation surrounding him. The fascinating facts, though, were undisputable: of African origin, he arrived in Japan enslaved by the Portuguese; he impressed with size, strength, and wits; he served under the Japanese daimyo Oda Nobunaga. There must have been something exceptional about Yasuke to succeed in the service of a personality like Nobunaga's, [...] and the goal has been to expound on this in Assassin's Creed Shadows through his curiosity, openness, respect for values and tradition, valor, warmth, and charisma."
While the header for this section is called "Yasuke: A Real-Life Samurai", this description seems to be carefully worded to stop short of directly calling him a samurai, with the use of "historical legend" elsewhere suggesting that they were aware of its unconfirmed status and were fictionalizing Yasuke for the game.
In a set of developer interviews with Famitsu published the same day, creative director Jonathan Dumont elaborated that they also chose Yasuke to fit with the game's story of a foreigner who fights off oppressing forces like the Portuguese slave trade affecting Japan while exploring a country unknown to him, stating that they "were first looking for "our samurai," someone who could be our non-Japanese eyes". The following day, the Famitsu article was edited to change direct quotes in the interviews where Yasuke was referred to as an "outsider" to being a "foreign-born samurai", and also completely removed the aforementioned quote, for unknown reasons.
Game website:
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/shadows
Ubisoft press release:
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/2LH4Ael4X1TlNJY3B3aYg5/assassins-creed-shadows-launches-november-15-features-dual-protagonists-in-feudal-japan
IGN articles:
https://www.ign.com/articles/when-and-where-is-assassins-creed-shadows-set
https://www.ign.com/articles/assassins-creed-shadows-yasuke-asian-protagonist
Time article:
https://time.com/6978997/assassins-creed-shadow-yasuke-controversy/
Forbes article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/05/15/japanese-fans-are-puzzled-that-yasuke-is-in-assassins-creed-shadows/
Yasuke English Wikipedia article (Note: while much of this controversy occurred on English language Wikipedia, bear in mind that Wikipedia articles by themselves are not reliable sources for historical research, and the English article is not a uniform representation of the information on Yasuke across the different language versions of Wikipedia that have this article. There are varying primary, secondary, historical and pop culture sources used in all of these articles either backing up verified information about him, or making different claims that may not be accurate.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yasuke
Wikipedia administrator discussion:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518220622/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Talk:Yasuke_is_a_complete_dumpster_fire
Earliest archive of original Famitsu interview (in Japanese; English machine translations for all archives of this article compared between Google Translate and DeepL prior to publishing this submission) (May 15):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240515185159/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
Archived edited interview (May 16):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240516194746/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
Latest archived edit (May 18):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518034336/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/assassins-creed/shadows
Ubisoft press release:
https://news.ubisoft.com/en-us/article/2LH4Ael4X1TlNJY3B3aYg5/assassins-creed-shadows-launches-november-15-features-dual-protagonists-in-feudal-japan
IGN articles:
https://www.ign.com/articles/when-and-where-is-assassins-creed-shadows-set
https://www.ign.com/articles/assassins-creed-shadows-yasuke-asian-protagonist
Time article:
https://time.com/6978997/assassins-creed-shadow-yasuke-controversy/
Forbes article:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2024/05/15/japanese-fans-are-puzzled-that-yasuke-is-in-assassins-creed-shadows/
Yasuke English Wikipedia article (Note: while much of this controversy occurred on English language Wikipedia, bear in mind that Wikipedia articles by themselves are not reliable sources for historical research, and the English article is not a uniform representation of the information on Yasuke across the different language versions of Wikipedia that have this article. There are varying primary, secondary, historical and pop culture sources used in all of these articles either backing up verified information about him, or making different claims that may not be accurate.):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasuke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Yasuke
Wikipedia administrator discussion:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518220622/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard/Incidents#Talk:Yasuke_is_a_complete_dumpster_fire
Earliest archive of original Famitsu interview (in Japanese; English machine translations for all archives of this article compared between Google Translate and DeepL prior to publishing this submission) (May 15):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240515185159/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
Archived edited interview (May 16):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240516194746/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
Latest archived edit (May 18):
https://web.archive.org/web/20240518034336/https://www.famitsu.com/article/202405/5194
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During the climax of the 2022 film "Everything Everywhere All at Once", protagonist Evelyn Wang and antagonist Jobu Tupaki appear in an alternate universe where they are both rocks overlooking a vista. In an interview with the film's directors and writers Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, the pair revealed that this scene had two major influences: the children's book "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble" (about a donkey who turns into a rock and is isolated from his family), and the video game Everything, whose creator David O'Reilly was a friend of the pair. Everything is a game where the player can play as "literally anything", with the pair describing it as follows:
"Kwan: It feels good and that is really beautiful. The whole purpose of the game is you have to look at it and not press anything. It’s a game where the longer you don’t press anything —
Scheinert: — the more you progress."
Scheinert: — the more you progress."
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The first small patch for Crow Country released on May 10th, 2024 merely states "Fixed xenophobic mushroom boys. Ask me about it some time." Tom Vian, technical director at SFB Games, elaborated on this in a Twitter thread stating a bug had been reported through the Steam forums regarding the "mushroom boys" found throughout the game. As it turned out, the config settings regarding the mushroom boys' trigger distance had been stored as text, with said distances using fractional values. This caused issues regarding the computer's native regional style. For example, a French computer would read a "0.4" value as simply "0", making the trigger range impossible to enter. Similarly, a German computer would turn the value into "4", meaning the trigger range could reach halfway across the room. The glitch was fixed by updating the game so that it only used the United Kingdom's configuration settings, as this was how the devs' settings were written, and was why the glitch was never encountered during playtesting (the playtesters were mostly from the UK aside from a few US playtesters).
May 10 patch notes:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1996010/view/4201372769980619454?l=english
Tom Vian Twitter thread:
https://www.twitter.com/SFBTom/status/1789295729883726332
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1996010/view/4201372769980619454?l=english
Tom Vian Twitter thread:
https://www.twitter.com/SFBTom/status/1789295729883726332
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THE JOY OF CREATION is the first and so far only officially endorsed Five Nights at Freddy's project to be developed in Unreal Engine 5, with past games using Clickteam Fusion 2.5, Unreal Engine 4, or other less commonly used game engines.
Nikson Unreal Engine 5 tweet:
https://twitter.com/nikson_dev/status/1550209225367879680
Scott Cawthon Clickteam Fusion 2.5 interview:
https://www.clickteam.com/clickteam-blog?p=interview-of-the-author-of-a-top-paid-game-in-appstore
Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted Unreal Engine 4 intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0ETZxfSs4
https://twitter.com/nikson_dev/status/1550209225367879680
Scott Cawthon Clickteam Fusion 2.5 interview:
https://www.clickteam.com/clickteam-blog?p=interview-of-the-author-of-a-top-paid-game-in-appstore
Five Nights at Freddy's: Help Wanted Unreal Engine 4 intro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL0ETZxfSs4
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In regards to the game's visuals, director Ryan Vandendyck opted to avoid using a style that was considered common among indie games, stating:
"Basically we felt that the retro pixilated look and the anime-look in RPGs were way over-done, especially in the realm of indie RPGs. Plus, we felt neither of those two really fit a modern setting that well. So we went with a more cartoony style that we think fits the modern, Westernized setting, as well as being something quite unique. As you may guess by the fact that I made Waveform, I like making things not seen in other games! And as soon as we saw Robin’s character designs and the characters brought to life through animation, everyone on the team was sold."
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In a 2008 interview with the game's director Katsura Hashino published in the Persona Club P4 book, he credited the game's Japanese voice cast for having "saved us". He went on to explain the casting process for the Japanese version, which only started after a rough draft of the script was finished. The game's scenario writer Yuichiro Tanaka came up with a list of potential candidates and samples of their work; Hashino, character designer Shigenori Soejima, and sound designer Shoji Meguro selected the cast together from that list. Hashino noted that none of them had much knowledge about voice actors and only relied on the given samples to choose who they felt was best for the role.
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At one point when talking to D in The Crooked Man, David reveals that he is color blind, which ultimately lead to him failing to become a pilot. The Boogie Man elaborates on this, revealing that while he can see red, he has difficulty with white and pink. This would suggest that he specifically has Deutan Color Blindness, where it is common to confuse pink and white colors (particularly in cases where the pink is akin to a light purple).
The Crooked Man gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_EXP6DrJmU?t=6688
The Boogie Man gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MumLDXVxlYY?t=12043
Types of color blindness:
https://eu.enchroma.com/pages/types-of-color-blindness#:~:text=In%20Deutan%2Dtype%20CVD%2C%20the,yellow%2C%20or%20blue%20and%20purple.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_EXP6DrJmU?t=6688
The Boogie Man gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MumLDXVxlYY?t=12043
Types of color blindness:
https://eu.enchroma.com/pages/types-of-color-blindness#:~:text=In%20Deutan%2Dtype%20CVD%2C%20the,yellow%2C%20or%20blue%20and%20purple.
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Behind-the-scenes pictures from the game's development show that former wrestler Jeff Jarrett did green screen capture work for appearing in the game as a playable character. However, due to his departure from the WWF (now known as the WWE) in 1995 regarding a contractual dispute before the game's release, he was subsequently removed from the roster.
Behind the Scenes:
https://thecollectorate.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/behind-the-scenes-wwf-in-your-house-video-game/
Jeff Jarrett Interview with Wrestlezone:
https://www.wrestlezone.com/features/interviews/1396780-jeff-jarrett-comments-on-being-removed-from-wwf-in-your-house-before-the-game-released
More information:
https://www.thesportster.com/wrestlers-cut-from-wwe-video-games/
https://thecollectorate.wordpress.com/2017/07/02/behind-the-scenes-wwf-in-your-house-video-game/
Jeff Jarrett Interview with Wrestlezone:
https://www.wrestlezone.com/features/interviews/1396780-jeff-jarrett-comments-on-being-removed-from-wwf-in-your-house-before-the-game-released
More information:
https://www.thesportster.com/wrestlers-cut-from-wwe-video-games/
subdirectory_arrow_right Sonic The Hedgehog (Franchise)
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In The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, when Sonic is found presumed dead on the ground, the pose he is laying in is a reference to a meme within animation circles known as the "Family Guy Death Pose". This pose is frequently used throughout the animated series of the same name created by Seth MacFarlane, which became criticized in later years for utilizing cheaper animation. This is not the first time this pose was referenced in the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise; the first time being in Issue #3 of the IDW comic book miniseries "Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome", where the character Surge collapses into the pose at one point.
Trailer for the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC8sIhr-z5I
Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome Issue #3 (Page 9; info and source provided by chocolatejr9):
https://readallcomics.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-imposter-syndrome-3-2022/
Know Your Meme article:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/family-guy-death-pose-peter-falls-down-the-stairs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC8sIhr-z5I
Sonic the Hedgehog: Imposter Syndrome Issue #3 (Page 9; info and source provided by chocolatejr9):
https://readallcomics.com/sonic-the-hedgehog-imposter-syndrome-3-2022/
Know Your Meme article:
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/family-guy-death-pose-peter-falls-down-the-stairs
subdirectory_arrow_right Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 5 (Game)
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Dance Dance Revolution II is the only DDR game released on the Wii to feature a 1-20 difficulty scale (introduced in Dance Dance Revolution X), Doubles Charts, and Challenge Charts. However, due to the game lacking Shock Arrows, any Challenge Charts containing them are omitted.
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In 2013, Valve and the tabletop game company WizKids collaborated to produce an exclusive chess set themed around Team Fortress 2 that was sold on Valve's website and on ThinkGeek. Each copy of the set came with a digital code for a hat called the Grandmaster, where the head piece would change as your killstreak increases. Aside from "Grandmaster" being one of the highest titles awarded to chess players by the International Chess Federation, the hat's item description references a pair of highly publicized chess matches in 1996 and 1997 between former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, and IBM's chess-playing computer Deep Blue.
Archived store pages for TF2 Chess Set:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160603170729/https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1286/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160523044118/http://store.valvesoftware.com:80/product.php?i=BGTF001
Chess set unboxing and Grandmaster hat activation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9mtDHj8Bt0
Grandmaster hat showcase:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5djC7RUDRuY
TF2 official wiki article:
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Grandmaster
https://web.archive.org/web/20160603170729/https://www.thinkgeek.com/product/1286/
https://web.archive.org/web/20160523044118/http://store.valvesoftware.com:80/product.php?i=BGTF001
Chess set unboxing and Grandmaster hat activation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9mtDHj8Bt0
Grandmaster hat showcase:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5djC7RUDRuY
TF2 official wiki article:
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Grandmaster
subdirectory_arrow_right Super Monkey Ball Adventure (Game)
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In an attempt to make the game more accessible and add more depth to the series, Sega opted to focus more on the game's plot compared to previous titles, which primarily focused on the gameplay, to try and take the series' characters "into the next sort of iconic level".
Nintendo Power Issue #204 - June 2006 (Pages 38-41):
https://archive.org/details/nintendo-power-issue-204-june-2006/page/38/mode/2up
https://archive.org/details/nintendo-power-issue-204-june-2006/page/38/mode/2up
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According to animator PhantomArcade, Nene's redesign for the game went through numerous changes that ultimately did not go through. Additionally, he was the only person on the team involved with Nene's redesign.
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According to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled art director Jason Godbout, when the Crash Nitro Kart bosses were being redesigned, extra care was given to Nash the Shark so he would be "so awesome" that he becomes "the character that everyone's gonna want to play [as]". Godbout believed that Nash went from being "okay, but unappealing" in his Nitro Kart iteration to being his personal favorite character in Nitro-Fueled due to the redesign efforts.
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This is the first game in the Dragon Ball: Budokai Tenkaichi series to be released under its original Japanese name (Dragon Ball: Sparking!) in the overseas version of the game.
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In a pre-release gameplay video from 2018, at the end of a tour of the Home Base, a lit sign featuring the logo for the pizza restaurant chain Domino's can be seen hanging on a wall near the refrigerator. This sign would be removed in the final game, but within the game's files are several voice lines spoken by the game's main cast (Coco, Davis, Eva, Io, Jack, Louis, Mia, Rin and Yakumo) talking about eating freshly delivered pizza in an unusually glorifying manner without mentioning the company by name. It's unclear how these voice clips would have been used in the game, but when taken with the unused Domino's sign, it's believed that this was all part of a planned promotional tie-in that fell through when the game was delayed to 2019, where Domino's would have somehow survived the apocalypse in the game's story and adapted to the Revenants and the Lost.
Code Vein - Domino's voice lines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNnNoC32N1k
Code Vein - Home Base early gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGhVIQShNz0
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Code_Vein#Domino.27s_Pizza_Promotion_Leftovers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNnNoC32N1k
Code Vein - Home Base early gameplay:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGhVIQShNz0
The Cutting Room Floor article:
https://tcrf.net/Code_Vein#Domino.27s_Pizza_Promotion_Leftovers
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Just before Sonic transforms into Super Sonic near the end of the game, the surviving crowd in Station Square can be heard in the background chanting Sonic's name to encourage him. This crowd recording is actually comprised of over one thousand attendants in the audience for the official reveal of the game at the Tokyo International Forum on August 22, 1998. The chant was led by special guest Hiroshi Fujioka portraying Segata Sanshiro, the Japanese advertising mascot for the Sega Dreamcast's predecessor the Sega Saturn, and recorded by Sega to use in the game.
Sonic Adventure reveal at the Tokyo International Forum on August 22, 1998:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzRMCNu6Rc?t=3357
Final chant recording at the event used in the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzRMCNu6Rc?t=3643
Sonic Adventure - Super Sonic transformation chant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv9wXt81xDw?t=917
SonicRetro article:
https://sonicretro.org/2023/08/23/25-years-ago-sonic-adventure-was-revealed-to-the-world-a-look-back/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzRMCNu6Rc?t=3357
Final chant recording at the event used in the game:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzRMCNu6Rc?t=3643
Sonic Adventure - Super Sonic transformation chant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv9wXt81xDw?t=917
SonicRetro article:
https://sonicretro.org/2023/08/23/25-years-ago-sonic-adventure-was-revealed-to-the-world-a-look-back/
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When Fox frees Krystal from her crystal prison at the top of Krazoa Palace in Star Fox Adventures, she immediately grabs her staff back from him and begins firing at the newly resurrected Andross as Fox runs off to his Arwing to confront the latter in Dinosaur Planet's orbit. Strangely enough, in the ending cutscene after Andross' defeat, Fox once again has Krystal's staff in his backpack. When asked about this in a January 10th, 2003 issue of Rare's scribes, the development team responded with:"It was late. We were tired. Just leave it. Okay? Could you honestly not think of a better question than this?"
Star Fox Adventures - General Scales and Andross final boss:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coeDs2f-6N8
Rare Scribes - January 10th, 2003:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-january-10th-2003/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coeDs2f-6N8
Rare Scribes - January 10th, 2003:
https://www.raregamer.co.uk/scribes-january-10th-2003/
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Despite incorporating several elements common in a live-service game (i.e. an in-game store, a battle pass, seasonal events, and premium currency), Skull and Bones was given a price tag of $70. Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, justified this during an investors call before the game's release, stating:
It's worth noting, however, that the game cost $200 million due to its decade-long development, with Ubisoft admitting that they did not think they would be able to break even due to its poor launch. Knowing this, it can be inferred that Ubisoft insisted on referring to Skull and Bones as a "quadruple-A" title not because of the scope of the project, but for how abnormally long it took to produce and raised the price to recoup costs, because this was not the first or only game they called a AAAA title in the past. It was discovered as far back as 2020 on the LinkedIn pages of several Ubisoft employees that they referred to Skull and Bones, the also long-delayed Beyond Good & Evil 2, and later Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, all games with development times lasting at least six years, as AAAA titles in their work experience.
"It's a very big game and we feel that people will really see how vast and complete that game is. So it's a really full triple-A, quadruple-A game that will deliver in the long run."
It's worth noting, however, that the game cost $200 million due to its decade-long development, with Ubisoft admitting that they did not think they would be able to break even due to its poor launch. Knowing this, it can be inferred that Ubisoft insisted on referring to Skull and Bones as a "quadruple-A" title not because of the scope of the project, but for how abnormally long it took to produce and raised the price to recoup costs, because this was not the first or only game they called a AAAA title in the past. It was discovered as far back as 2020 on the LinkedIn pages of several Ubisoft employees that they referred to Skull and Bones, the also long-delayed Beyond Good & Evil 2, and later Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, all games with development times lasting at least six years, as AAAA titles in their work experience.
Quote source:
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-ceo-defends-skull-and-bones-dollar60-price-tag-says-its-a-quadruple-a-game/
Game budget:
https://insider-gaming.com/skull-and-bones-players-total/
2020 LinkedIn page mentions:
https://screenrant.com/ubisoft-beyond-good-evil-skull-bones-aaaa-games/
2022 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora AAAA game label:
https://tech4gamers.com/avatar-frontiers-of-pandora/
https://www.pcgamer.com/ubisoft-ceo-defends-skull-and-bones-dollar60-price-tag-says-its-a-quadruple-a-game/
Game budget:
https://insider-gaming.com/skull-and-bones-players-total/
2020 LinkedIn page mentions:
https://screenrant.com/ubisoft-beyond-good-evil-skull-bones-aaaa-games/
2022 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora AAAA game label:
https://tech4gamers.com/avatar-frontiers-of-pandora/
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According to the game's official Twitter account, the developers claimed that the only characters they would not add to the game if they became, or were discovered to secretly be, public domain were Calvin and Hobbes from the comic strip of the same name. While the characters are still copyrighted thereby ruling them out, the reasoning for refusing to consider them was out of respect for creator Bill Watterson and his refusal to license the comics for merchandise despite their popularity, feeling that it would go against the strip's ideals and ruin its authenticity.
On Calvin and Hobbes not being added:
https://twitter.com/InverseNinjas/status/1754647278663729244
https://twitter.com/InverseNinjas/status/1754648044111638534
Bill Watterson interview:
https://www.tcj.com/the-bill-watterson-interview/
https://twitter.com/InverseNinjas/status/1754647278663729244
https://twitter.com/InverseNinjas/status/1754648044111638534
Bill Watterson interview:
https://www.tcj.com/the-bill-watterson-interview/