Ubisoft has apologized for the use of a real-life Japanese reenactment group's flag in concept art for "Assassin's Creed Shadows" and announced that the image in question will not be used in the future.

As Siliconera noted, the issue came to light in June when a Japanese gamer noticed that the official concept art for "Assassin's Creed Shadows" featured a flag of the Sekigahara gunmen. It's hard to tell, but if you look closely:

to the right of this image via IGN:

it turns out that the Sekigahara Teppo-tai is a real historical reenactment group, and the flag was used without permission.

Twitter user @matchlock_kage, a member of the organization, eventually contacted Ubisoft Japan about the flag's existence and told them that if they wanted to use it, they should contact the organization first.

They also posted a photo of the group's flag taken in 2019. The flag is clearly visible:

It took a while, but on June 28, @matchlock_kage told me that Ubisoft was looking into the matter and was trying to contact Sekigahara Teppo. A week later, Ubisoft finally responded to the complaint: according to @matchlock_kage, Ubisoft "accepted the criticism of the concept art and promptly removed it from the official site," and "also stated that it is difficult to remove data that has already been copied He also stated that they would not be using this flag in the future.

The somewhat odd phrasing is largely due to the fact that the tweet was Google translated from the original Japanese; in an English statement provided to PC Gamer, Ubisoft confirmed the mistake and apologized.

"We received a complaint that the flag of the Sekigahara Artillery Corps was used in two published concept art without permission. A Ubisoft representative stated, "We have received a complaint that the flag of the Sekigahara Artillery Corps was used without permission in two published concept art pieces. This art will not be used or distributed in the future, except in the art book that accompanies the collector's edition. We sincerely apologize in this regard."

Assassin's Creed Shadows is scheduled for release on November 15.