“Shaken”, but “not surprised”. This is the state of mind that prevailed on Friday among a few employees of the Ubisoft office in Montreal, when the multinational video game has been facing for a few days a flood of reports of sexual abuse and harassment including many employees claim to have been victims over the years.
On Thursday, the company decided to launch internal investigations into all of these allegations, “with the support of specialized external consultants,” she said.
“It was only a matter of time,” said one developer, who asked not to be named. The abscess has just been pierced and that’s what we needed. “
For several days, the video game industry seems to be living its own #MeToo movement by facing a multiplication of women who publicly report, anonymously or not, the harassment, abuse or sexual assault they have suffered in this environment mainly made up of men.
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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. For Ubisoft, the abuse would have occurred in the Canadian offices of the company, but also in those it has in Brazil, Bulgaria and the United States.
On Tuesday, Fey Vercuiel, a former employee of the Sofia office, denounced on the Twitter network “a toxic working environment” by describing a racism expressed on a daily basis and a sexism that is not even hidden within the company. “I’ve heard bosses say they want to hire women just to have things to contemplate,” she wrote.
In Toronto, creative director “drunk and enraged” allegedly “strangled employee at party” hosted for Far Cry game, one of Ubisoft’s most famous franchises, says another, adding that the manager of the studio in question was aware and “did nothing”. The person against whom these charges were laid was even promoted.
A former Toronto office worker tells on Twitter that she was “raped” by a developer during the 2014 Mass for the video game PAX East in Boston. Another denounces a colleague who asked her for a blowjob while she was still working at her office, others report that a creative director of the Montreal studio “licked the face” of a collaborator at another party Office.
“I was teased when I went to my boss to tell him about my problems,” said one.
Recall that Ubisoft, a multinational of French origin, is one of the most important publishers in the world of video games, with franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Rayman, Watch Dogs or e ncore Prince of Persia.
For Pascale Thériault, doctoral student in cinematographic studies at the University of Montreal who is interested in sexism in video games and who teaches this digital art at the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), the revelations about the climate of Harassment and abuse within Ubisoft is not surprising. “It’s a problem that regularly comes to the surface in this very masculine environment,” she says on the other end. Barely 20-30% of women workers in the industry are women. In the past, many dared to speak up to denounce him, but were quickly silenced. It is possible that today, the wave that has just hit this industry will reveal a more sustainable movement and possibly bringing about change. “
Joined by The duty, the management of the Montreal office declined to comment for “not to harm the internal investigation process which is in full swing,” said Antoine Leduc-Labelle, spokesperson for the company.
Faced with the wave of denunciations, the company officially apologized Thursday evening to “all those affected”. “We are sincerely sorry,” she said in a statement while saying “committed to creating an inclusive and safe environment for our teams, our players and our communities.” “It is clear today that we have failed to achieve this goal. We have to do better, ”she added.
Ubisoft undertakes in the process to take “all appropriate disciplinary measures”, depending on the conclusions that the internal investigations will produce. “We also audit our existing policies, procedures and systems to understand where they have failed, and to ensure that we can better prevent, detect and punish inappropriate behavior.”
“The culture of harassment that prevails in this environment is a vicious circle,” says Mme Thériault. Until now, the developers who have denounced it have rarely been taken seriously, and this, very often, to protect the talents who face their accusations. It is an unhealthy mechanism which does not solve anything and which incites many women to leave this environment. “
With Agence France-Presse
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