Ubisoft has come under fire lately due to a wave of employees coming forward with sexual harassment and other misconduct. Several high level employees have stepped down or resigned, including Maxime Beland, co-founder of Ubisoft Toronto, and Serge Hascoet, the now former chief creative officer.
In an effort to restore the company’s image, CEO Yves Guillemot released a four-minute long video message (above) that was posted to the Ubisoft YouTube channel just before the Ubisoft Forward September 2020 event.
“We learned that certain Ubisoft employees did not uphold our company’s values,” Guillmot says in the video, “and our system’s failed to protect the victim’s of their behavior. I’m truly sorry to everyone who was hurt. [..] We are focused on improved diversity and exclusivity at all levels of the company.”
Ubisoft is pledging an additional $1 million to their Ubisoft Graduate Program, a two-year program that seeks to help recent graduates join the gaming industry, including from underrepresented groups.
Guillomet further said Ubisoft “fully supports the Black Lives Matter movement,” and announced a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
Ubisoft also announced a new edition of the Womxn Develop at Ubisoft program. Like the Graduate Program, it’s designed to seek out and develop diverse talent, while providing mentorship with Ubisoft experts. The program will launch Monday, Sept 14 in San Francisco, Kyiv, and Tornto. In January the program will expand to other Ubisoft studios, including Paris.
