The past few months haven't been great for Ubisoft and its staff. The company's staff have come forward to report misconduct and abuse at the workplace, leading to the dismissal of many high-ranking Ubisoft executives. These executives include the managing director of Ubisoft's Canadian studios, Yannis Mallat, Serge Hascoet, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla's former Creative Director Ashraf Ismail. Following this, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot came forward to promise that the company has taken the situation seriously, and necessary changes will be implemented to protect its staff.
Soon after the initial allegations, Guillemot launched a studio-wide survey of all employees. The results of the survey have been published publicly, which shows that about 25% of the 14,000 total Ubisoft employees have either experienced or witnessed misconduct or abuse of some kind. 20% of the employees also expressed that they don't feel safe working at Ubisoft. The data shows that women experienced 30% more harassment than men and non-binary individuals reported 43% more harassment than men.
As a response to the survey results, Guillemot outlined the following four key points that Ubisoft will be focusing on to improve the workplace environment:
- Guarantee a working environment where everyone feels respected and safe.
- Putting diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do.
- Refocus and strengthen our HR function.
- Make the managers of the group accountable and empower them.
Ubisoft also sent out a lengthy letter to its employees that describes how the company intends to carry out the above mentioned objectives. Some of the mentioned approaches include anonymous whistleblowing channels, specialized help and support units, a mandatory signing of a code of conduct, putting an emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and more. You can read the full letter here.
Ubisoft will also be releasing a bunch of new games this holiday season, beginning with Watch Dogs Legion on October 29. This will be followed by Assassin's Creed Valhalla on November 10, and Immortals Fenyx Rising on December 3.
