Ubisoft is making Assassin’s Creed bigger, but it still has several abusers working there
Assassin’s Creed is only getting bigger and better as time goes by, with live-service features being added into the series ever since the arrival of Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Now the latest report from Bloomberg suggests that the series is only going to get bigger. More importantly, the series is getting bigger while Ubisoft still has several abusers and abuse allegations running rampant at the company.
According to the report, some Ubisoft managers that were accused of abuse still hold senior positions within the company – even after reorganization. Abusers still holding their position within Ubisoft has led to some employees to file complaints, via the company’s internal message board, about being wholly displeased with how the situation has been handled.
The original report of sexual harassment and misconduct was brought to light back in 2020, with Bloomberg reporting that employees didn’t feel safe to speak up. Kotaku also followed the case, reporting on it 2 months later after the resignation of chief creative officer, Serge Hascoët as well as other studio heads. One of the things that they were told by a Ubisoft employee at the time was that they felt frustrated at senior HR and other leadership for “that would allow this culture to persist in the first place.” Other employees expressed feeling completely demoralized working at Ubisoft now, and that they felt very little to no loyalty to CEO of the company, Yves Guillemot, or the company in general.
With all this in mind, Bloomberg’s latest report of a bigger Assassin’s Creed live-service game – called Assassin’s Creed Infinity – inspired by Fortnite and Grand Theft Auto feels barely worth mentioning. Especially as it doesn’t look like anything at all is being done to ensure Ubisoft and the abusers that remain in-office aren’t able to get away with toxic behaviour. After all, the report clearly states that “last month the French union Solidaires Informatique said at least three Ubisoft managers in Montreal had been accused of “harassment or toxic behaviour” and that employees had reported other claims of racism and sexism to human resources “without anything being done”.
The Ubisoft spokeswoman in Bloomberg’s report didn’t comment on individual cases, but mentioned that “employees who have been under investigation would not remain at Ubisoft if results of investigations warranted termination.” Make of that what you will.
So, yes. Assassin’s Creed is getting bigger and becoming even more of a live-service series than it already was – groundbreaking, I know – but… there are also several abusers will working at Ubisoft too. If there’s something in this story worth celebrating then, well… I can’t find it.
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