For the past few months, Ubisoft has been at the center of an ever-evolving reckoning in the video game industry; across the board, people have been stepping forward and sharing their stories of abuse. Ubisoft’s prevalence in the situation was particularly alarming, especially considering how seemingly universal it was at the worldwide company. They’ve been frustratingly tight-lipped at times, especially when it comes to acknowledging the situation in their Ubisoft Forward digital events, or in the same breath as any marketing or announcements in general.
Ubisoft co-founder and CEO, Yves Guillemot addressed all Ubisoft employees in a letter, shared with GameSpot, noting that an internal survey revealed a staggering rate of workplace misconduct. The survey indicated that approximately 3,500 of Ubisoft’s employees had experienced misconduct in some form or another in the workplace. For reference, 14,000 employees were surveyed, which means one in four employees surveyed experienced misconduct. The report also indicated that women and non-binary people faced the most abuse in the workplace and that throughout the 3,500 cases reported, around 66% of the people who reported misconduct felt that they received support from their management.
Even as the French developer has stated that they’ve been working to fix these issues, reports indicate that one of the publisher’s superstar developers, Michel Ancel, left the company following multiple allegations of misconduct. Other high-up suspects have been involved in the company’s editorial board, which ultimately has the final say in how Ubisoft games are produced and what games do and don’t get made.
While Ubisoft has made promises in multiple avenues to improve the situation internally by improving and strengthening diversity and inclusion efforts, restructuring their human resources, and holding managers and leads more accountable, the promises so far have a hollow ring to them as more and more employees come out and share their stories.
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