It’s been exactly a year since a group of Ubisoft employees penned an open letter to the company outlining poor working conditions, bringing to light issues of sexual harassment and assault concerning multiple employees at the company, demanding that the company take action to fix a “toxic culture”.
Nearly 500 Ubisoft employees signed the letter prompting a rapid response from CEO Yves Guillemot promising action. “We have heard clearly from this letter that not everyone is confident in the processes that have been put in place to manage misconduct reports,” he wrote in reply. “Myself and the entire Ubisoft leadership team are committed to building a better Ubisoft for all of us.”
That was one year ago today. And today the results are in… And the A Better Ubisoft campaigners aren’t happy.
In fact, via Twitter, they say that “None of our demands have been met”.
It is one year to the day that we signed our open letter to Ubisoft management calling for FAR more action to tackle abuse and setting out our four key demands. None of our demands have been met.#ABetterUbisoft #EndAbuseInGaming
A thread 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇 pic.twitter.com/YaXrEGVa0M
— A Better Ubisoft 🤍 (@ABetterUbisoft) July 28, 2022
The Twitter thread also list how many staff members who signed the letter have left the company in the last year (25%), how many use he/him as an identifier (60%) and what proportion of the company is are women (25.4%), observing that “We are massively disproportionately losing women who signed our open letter calling for more action to tackle abuse.)
The group’s action followed a similar rebellion at Activision Blizzard resulting in major restructuring. It appears that – as far as the A Better Ubisoft group is concerned – Ubisoft are yet to pull off a similar correction.
The groups demands therefore remain:
- Stop promoting and moving known offenders from studio to studio, team to team with no repercussions. This cycle needs to end.
- We want a collective seat at the table. To have a meaningful say in how UBisoft as a company moves forward from here.
- Cross-industry collaboration, to agree on a set of ground rules and processes that all studios can use to handle these offences in the future
- This collaboration must heavily involve employees in non-management positions and union representatives.
At the time of writing Ubisoft are yet to deliver a response.
Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the world's biggest entertainment, home and tech media brands. He's reviewed all the greats, interviewed countless big names, and reported on thousands of releases in the fields of video games, music, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors, garden design and more. He’s the ex-Editor of PSM3, GamesMaster, Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes fun things for great websites.
