Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, responded to an open letter, while not reflecting on the issues mentioned in it.

The French company’s employees (oh, about a thousand of them…) have published an open letter, in which they criticised the company’s management for failing to address widespread complaints of „systemic discrimination, harassment and bullying” within Ubisoft that we discussed throughout last year. The letter also expressed solidarity with Activision Blizzard workers. Ubisoft’s brief response said that it has „deep respect for the engagement of our teams who are pushing for changes within our industry,” supporting efforts to create a safer and more inclusive workplace for all employees. But there were no further details mentioned.

Guillemot’s level was published by Axios‘ Stephen Totilo. We’ll quote parts of it: „We have made important progress over the past year. Since last summer, we have implemented new anonymous reporting tools, revamped our HR [human resources] processes including new global policies to prevent and manage discrimination, retaliation, harassment, installed a new code of conduct, rolled out mandatory training, established a content review group and are bringing in new leadership across major studios, HR, D&I [Diversity and Inclusion], Editorial, and Production. These are important steps forward, but this is a long process, and there is still more work to be done.”

He cited more than 300 „listening sessions” that happened in 2020, along with a company-wide survey and global audit, as „invaluable in driving our plan forward.” He promised that new sessions and a new survey will both happen. The company is currently in the process of hiring a new vice president of global employee relations. Guillemot promised more visibility and „leadership support” for the company’s Employee Resource Group.

However. Ubisoft’s employees aren’t taking any of his words: „We have seen nothing more than a year of kind words, empty promises, and an inability or unwillingness to remove known offenders. We no longer trust your commitment to addressing these issues at their core.” One of the offenders (who we discussed previously) was former Ubisoft Singapore head Hugues Ricour. The French company is also facing a new complaint filed by Solidaires Informatique, a workers union, alleging that executives (including Guillemot) fostered a culture of „institutional sexual harassment” that allowed abusive behaviour to grow unchecked.

The head of Ubisoft said another update on Ubisoft’s future (the progress on its Values Project, D&O initiatives, and HR roadmap) will be shared sometime during Ubisoft’s third fiscal quarter (starting on October 1).

Source: PCGamer