Ubisoft said that it is "deeply disturbed" by the allegations that employees from a support studio, which also helped with "Assassin's Creed Shadows," suffered emotional and physical abuse.
The company in question is Brandoville Studios, which was an Indonesian art and animation office that contributed to various AAA games that shut down in 2024.
A spokesperson for Ubisoft said that they condemned all forms of abuse and that their thoughts were with the affected workers.
Emotional and Physical Abuse
The reports of the emotional and physical abuse surfaced after the gaming industry bore witness to a video that was shared on Jan. 7, 2025.
The footage was from People Make Games and showed several former employees claiming to have experienced manipulation and abuse while working at Brandoville Studios.
One example is an individual who worked at the firm from 2019 until it shut down last year. They said that they were forced to slap themselves 100 times as a form of punishment for supposed failure at the workplace, according to Games Radar.
There was also a separate video of the employee that showed them visibly dazed as they were being interrogated. The situation after the individual was supposedly told to slam her own head into a door frame.
She and another employee claim that their finances were also controlled, where a more senior staff member demanded portions of their salaries.
The studio in question shut down last year and is now the subject of a police investigation for the reports of emotional and physical abuse and other allegations.
Various Forms of Abuse
The abuse by Brandoville Studios was allegedly led by Commissioner Kwan Cherry Lai, who was responsible for running the studio's day-to-day operations.
Lai reportedly abused several employees, including imposing a strict work schedule and daily Christian worship, Eurogamer said.
There was also one example where an employee of the studio was forced to write lines similar to how a school child would in early education. This was a form of humiliation in front of colleagues.
Other forms of abuse include overworking a pregnant worker whose premature-born son later tragically died after being in intensive care for four months. Lai also sent threatening and insulting messages to the studio's workers, verbally berating and insulting them.
Lai supposedly pitted employees against each other by verbally berating them or gossiping about them. She also insisted on approving employee outfits every day before they start working at the office, according to IGN.
