Reports of harassment and sexual assault: the video game publisher Ubisoft is confronted with disturbing testimonies which notably led to the suspension of two of its leaders in Toronto and Paris.
World leader in the development of interactive video game software publishing, the Montreuil firm, written The Press, “is caught in the #metoo turmoil that has swept away the video game industry for a few days, including its studios in Montreal and Toronto”.
The Canadian daily summarizes:
The controversy arose over the past weekend with the publication of messages first pointing the finger at players and other players in the industry for gestures mainly occurring during events related to video games”.
Then on June 24, reports the chain CTV News, a Chicago whistleblower claimed that one of the Ubisoft managers in Montreal would have behaved “completely inappropriate towards women around him”.
“Landmark of sexual obsessed”
Natasha Bouchard worked from 1998 to 2009 at Ubisoft, in Montreal. She says on her Facebook page that at the time, a human resources employee had treated her “bitch because I refused her many dinner invitations!”, That a work neighbor had masturbated in front of her and that a former colleague remembered his passage at Ubisoft as a“sex obsessed cue”.
“Dozens of messages posted on Twitter report a ‘toxic’ workplace for women, globally”, indicated The Journal de Montréal.
The duty relate the testimony of a former Toronto employee who says she was “raped”By a developer at a video game event in Boston in 2014.
Hire women “to watch them”
Former Sofia, Bulgaria office worker Fey Vercuiel tweets to have heard “executives say they wanted to hire women just so they could have something to watch” :
Another employee who kept her name silent told The Press having seen his post “posted on the bulletin board [à pourvoir]”After one of his bosses at the time discovered his relationship with one of his friends.
“It was only a matter of time. The abscess has just been pierced and that’s what we needed”, Told Duty an Ubisoft developer on condition of anonymity.
Two suspended vice-presidents
Faced with these allegations, Ubisoft launched a series of internal investigations and, according to Bloomberg, several employees of the company were suspended, including two vice-presidents: Tommy François, in Paris, and Maxime Béland, in Montreal.
The Duty ensures that Ubisoft is not an isolated case in the video game industry:
“Several video game studios, including Ubisoft, a heavyweight in this industry, but also Insomniac, Techland, Paradox Interactive or Gato Studio are targeted by these denunciations which incriminate former and current employees of these companies”.
The American site The Verge made state similar testimonials in the creative spaces of YouTube and Twitch.
Pascale Thériault, specialist in sexism in the world of video games at the University of Montreal, is not surprised by what happens:
This is a problem that regularly comes to the surface in this very masculine environment. It is possible that today, the wave that has just hit this industry will reveal a more sustainable movement and possibly bringing about change. ”
Martin Gauthier
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