{"id":117977,"date":"2020-09-10T17:28:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-10T17:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamasutra.com\/view\/news\/369949"},"modified":"2020-09-10T17:28:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-10T17:28:00","slug":"ubisoft-ceo-issues-apology-for-past-misconduct-ahead-of-ubisoft-forward-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2020\/09\/10\/ubisoft-ceo-issues-apology-for-past-misconduct-ahead-of-ubisoft-forward-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Ubisoft CEO issues apology for past misconduct ahead of Ubisoft Forward event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has delivered a long-awaited statement on the controversy that\u2019s arisen around Ubisoft over the last several months, apologizing both for the actions of Ubisoft employees accused of misconduct back in June and for harmful imagery in a new Tom Clancy<\/em> mobile game.<\/p>\n

The video was shared on Ubisoft\u2019s Twitter account<\/a> today ahead of its Ubisoft Forward game highlight reel, but notably its comments on months-old allegations won\u2019t be included in the live broadcast due to what Ubisoft calls \u201ctiming constraints.\u201d In a follow-up tweet, Ubisoft says it is \u201cworking to ensure\u201d the statement will be attached to the on-demand version of the broadcast.<\/p>\n

In the video posted to Twitter, Guillemot shares that the company has taken action against staff members found to have violated its values and is taking steps to improve diversity and inclusivity at all levels of the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am truly sorry to everyone who was hurt. We have taken significant steps to remove or sanction those who violated our values and code of conduct and we are working to improve our systems and processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a longer blog post explaining those initiatives in detail, but so far Ubisoft\u2019s two-pronged approach includes a doubled investment in its Ubisoft Graduate Program specifically focused on creating opportunities for underrepresented groups, and a new edition of its Womxn Develop at Ubisoft mentorship program geared toward attracting and developing diverse new talent for its studios.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at the start of a long journey,\u201d says Guillemot. \u201cReal change will take time. But I am determined to do everything in my power to ensure everyone at Ubisoft feels welcomed, respected, and safe and to rebuild the trust or teams, fans, and players have in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initial allegations against two Ubisoft employees came to light<\/a> in late June, but quickly were followed by more allegations of misconduct, abuse, assault, and racism made against Ubisoft staff by those both with and outside of Ubisoft itself. In the months following, some of the accused have resigned, including executive level staff, while others<\/a> have been dismissed by Ubisoft<\/a> following investigations.<\/p>\n

Despite the action, comments from many current and former Ubisoft staff suggest that the allegations were not news to Ubisoft leadership this summer, and that the studio has long fostered a toxic culture<\/a> by protecting abusers within.<\/p>\n

Guillemot also, without naming the game, apologized for inappropriate content included in a \u201crecent mobile game.\u201d That game, of course, is Tom Clancy\u2019s Elite Squad <\/em>and the inappropriate content in question is its use of a symbol historically used by the Black Power movement (and recently Black Lives Matter) alongside imagery of protests to represent the game\u2019s fictional terrorist group. <\/p>\n

Ubisoft issued an apology via social media shortly after the game launched, and pledged to remove the Raised Fist symbol. The game itself was helmed by studio manager (and Guillemot\u2019s son) Charlie Guillemot, who issued an internal statement at the time saying the intro video would be removed in its entirety. <\/p>\n

In today\u2019s statement, Yves Guillemot affirms that, despite this controversy, \u201cUbisoft stands for equality and respect for all\u201d and pledges an additional donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.  <\/p>\n

\u201cThis kind of oversight cannot happen. We are putting in place safeguards to prevent this from happening in the future. We condemn anyone using our games as a proxy for hate or toxicity. We fully support the Black Lives Matter movement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has delivered a long-awaited statement on the controversy that\u2019s arisen around Ubisoft over the last several months, apologizing both for the actions of Ubisoft employees accused of misconduct back in June and for harmful imagery in a new Tom Clancy mobile game. The video was shared on Ubisoft\u2019s Twitter account today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}