Nope, the controversy really did happen here (didn't last more than 2 days though).

And the guy triggering it can be called anything, but he most likely wouldn't take money from a video game maker just to raise such a weird controversy. He's just taking any occasion he can to have media talk about him, and being on the extreme left, he is very much attached to the global positive feeling toward the french revolution (which he would probably like to see happen once again, with him being Robespierre, of course).

This is false. Mélenchon does not wish media to talk about him (his private life is almost completely unknown, people know he has a daughter, but not much else) . He wants the media to talk about his ideas, and he takes any occasion he has to put them forward.

He is not extreme left either. He is from what was considered the "normal, banal" left in the 1980's, which is now tagged extreme just because they have not stopped to use the phrase 'class struggle'.

I guess times change... What was considered "normal left" when the ussr still existed is now considered a bit more radical now.. He did make a coalition with what's left of the communist party until very recently, though.

The coalition still exists, but the French communist party (PCF) is generally not considered extreme left either, at least in France. They have had ministers in governments in the last decades. They have been financed by the USSR in its time, but have since made a lot of thinking and are not supporting Stalin's 'achievements' anymore. (Georges Marchais said back in the 1979 that the USSR's results were 'globally positive', which was already the premise of critics that were far more harsh in the 90's.)

hu.. Sorry what ? Yes, even in france, pcf has always been called extreme left (although it is not the only one, and they are even more radical ones, i agree). Just look at election results and see who has always been placed on the far left.

Now, the reason as to why the PS has accepted to make alliances with this party, which has always been in favor of a totally state-governed economy and against free market, and be fine with it, is an interesting question indeed (as opposed to the right wing parties who never put anyone from the extreme right in a government...for now).

I think you are mistaken on the positions of the PCF. Please read the political program for the 2012 elections "L'Humain d'abord" and tell me where it favors "totally state-governed economy" or is "against free market". (It is, indeed, for a greater control of financial transactions, but that does not mean being against free market.)

Extreme left in France is parties like Lutte Ouvrière and NPA (formerly LCR). Besides, extreme left is very diverse, contains trotskysts as well as libertarians (who never, ever have supported the USSR, and some of them think that PCF militants are stalinists and socio-traitors).

You are mistaken, PCF is not considered extreme left in France. The fact that you are placed on the 'far left' on election results does not mean you are extremist. It means you are on a place of the political spectrum where journalists chose to put you, and that they have found no one more radical than they judge you are to put to your left and who presented candidates. But no one really labels PCF as extremists, except some people who have an interest in doing so: those from the right wing who wish to make a coalition with extreme right.

As for your parallel between PCF and extreme right in France (I think you refer to FN), I am truly sad that someone as smart as you are can fall in that kind of ideological trap. Look beyond the labels and actually read what the Front de Gauche proposes, it has nothing to do whatsoever with what the FN intends to do.

If nothing else, The Terror served as an enduring lesson to the ruling class of Europe (and, for that matter, North America and beyond) about just how far they can push.

Not totally enduring though, as it's a lesson that seems to be very nearly forgotten by now. Mélenchon may get his wish.

Relax, man. It's just an angle. Editors are always looking for original takes on popular news items - I have to pitch stuff like this all the time. That it is insufficiently critical of the game itself and the politics of post-launch embargoes and such isn't really enough to warrant allegations of corruption and conspiracy.

So Ubisoft is also paying off the French politicians complaining about this? There are numerous links in the article.

(If they are, that's pretty impressive work by the Ubisoft PR department.)

The simpler explanation that someone at the Atlantic pays attention to French politics, saw these complaints, and spun it into an article for their American audience.

They must have used all the money they saved by not doing any QA.

Of course not. Alexis Corbière (from the same party than Mélenchon) is actually the one who got this analysis of the trailer first. It may have been a mistake from his, but he surely didn't do it for the money. He has already co-written a book concerning Robespierre[1], and is always on the lookout to bring the debate on this question.

[1] http://www.amazon.fr/Robespierre-reviens-Alexis-Corbi%C3%A8r...

From TFA: "Ubisoft, the maker of the Assassin’s Creed series of video games, which has been going since 2007 and has sold more than 70 million copies, is in fact French. "

The French President's party isn't doing to well in the polls and I wouldn't put it past them to be this desperate (I see them as both winning in a sense here).

Maybe their PR department is Illuminati and the Masons (<- Sarcasm).

People should be skeptical of the content they read, sure, but in this case has HN acted as a bit of a filter on the sort of content about the game reaching HN readers? This story made the front page while many about technical issues with the game have not.