What you need to know
- Ubisoft said it will be inevstigating sexual misconduct allegations made against employees.
- The company will be working with "external consultants" on the matter.
- The move comes after multiple employees were accused over the week on social media, which has been hitting all corners of the gaming industry.
Ubisoft responded Thursday to multiple allegations made over the past few days concerning sexual misconduct by its employees.
In a statement posted on its website, a company spokesperson said that the company is "launching investigations" into the allegations and is "auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down."
"We want to start by apologizing to everyone affected by this – we are truly sorry. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive and safe environment for our teams, players, and communities. It is clear we have fallen short of this in the past. We must do better," it read.
The post also said that the company will be hiring "specialized external consultants" to help with the investigations.
There have been multiple sexual assault and harassment accusations made against Ubisoft employees this week. Two examples include Andrien "EscoBlades" Gbinigie, who was a brand marketing manager at the company and the founder of the Black Game Pros Mixer, and Stone Chin, who worked in public relations.
Multiple women alleged that Gbinigie either assaulted them, raped them, or attempted to "groom" them with inappropriate relationships. He refuted one of the claims in a Medium post, which has since been removed for violating the platform's guidelines. Chin, on the other hand, was brought up in regards to incidents reported over the years. Chin hasn't responded to the accusations.
Ashraf Ismail, the creative director on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, stepped down from the project yesterday after accusations emerged that he was cheating on his wife.
Beyond specific incidents, many former Ubisoft employees have come forward about it being a toxic workplace. Musician Alanna Matty, whose music was used in Watch Dogs 2, posted in a Twitter thread about how HR failed to support her against a wave of abuse. VP of Editorial Maxime Beland was also accused of choking a female employee at a gaming event. In its statement, Ubisoft didn't go into specifics about which cases are being investigated.
Earlier this week, an Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement that the company is "deeply concerned by these accusations. We take any allegations of abuse or harassment very seriously and we are looking very closely into the allegations to determine next steps."
This follows the response to accusations against games writer Chris Avellone and multiple prominent streamers on Twitch.
