Ubisoft has announced it's holding a dubbing contest on TikTok over the next few days, a competition that will give fans the chance to voice an NPC in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Despite how much vitriol and controversy there is surrounding Assassin's Creed Shadows at the moment, Ubisoft knows the series has some pretty dedicated fans out there that would leap at the opportunity to be involved in the game's development in some way. That's why it has decided to put on a dubbing contest on TikTok over the next couple of weeks, in an attempt to recruit some fans as voice actors for various NPCs in the game.
In a video on TikTok, it was announced that the "Assassin's Creed Shadows Dubbing Challenge" will start from today ane end on July 2, as fans are tasked with taking one of the various cutscenes on Ubisoft's official account to perform a duet with them reading the script as a dub. Those that participate have to then tag their video, and Ubisoft will select the best performer for each available language to voice an NPC in the game.
Ubisoft Is Letting Fans Voice NPCs In Assassin's Creed Shadows
Of course, the NPCs that these people will be voicing are classified by Ubisoft as "secondary NPCs" and that all the lead characters and NPCs have been voiced by professionals, though it still feels a little strange that Ubisoft is essentially getting fans to do work for them without getting paid. Sure, getting to watch a voice acting session sounds neat, but these people are still doing the work that would have otherwise been done by professional voice actors and should probably be paid accordingly.
It's also worth noting that this isn't the first time Ubisoft has turned to fans to provide material for its titles, as the company got a lot of grief back in 2018 for working with Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Hitrecord to source music and art for Beyond Good and Evil 2. Those that submitted work weren't even guaranteed payment for their work, and te whole thing came across as fan exploitation rather than a fun attempt to get fans involved in development.
Ubisoft also held a similar contest on the run-up to Assassin's Creed Valhalla's release, asking fans to submit tattoo designs for a chance for them to feature in the finished game.
Granted, this dubbing contest isn't dangling the promise of payment in front of people, though perhaps Ubisoft should if it wants fans to essentially perform the job of a professional voice actor. It's a cool opportunity, but it's still a job.
