Serge Hascoet, Yannis Mallat and Cecile Cornet booted out of Ubisoft following ongoing Sexual Abuse Scandals

[Dcubed]

https://www.theguardian.com/games/2020/jul/12/ubisoft-sexual-harassment-probe-claims-three-more-executives
 

So for those who have been following the litany of industry related Sexual Harassment/Rape stories that have been crawling out of the woodwork over the past weeks; this will no doubt interest you to hear...

... for those of you that haven’t been following, or generally aren’t interested in industry gossip? This will probably still interest you! As it WILL have a significant impact on Ubisoft’s output going forward.

Serge Hascoet is Creative CEO at Ubisoft and is the second most senior person at the company (second only to Yves Guillemot himself).  He is the man responsible for approving game pitches, funding projects at the company and is responsible for approving/disapproving every single project that is worked on across ALL of Ubisoft’s studios.  He is now gone, following stories of him raping women at Ubisoft and fostering a culture of sexual harassment and abuse.

 

Yannis Mallat was the head of Ubisoft’s Canadian studios, and Cecile Cornet was head of Ubisoft’s HR department.  They’re both gone now too.

 

While this is of course, a positive step forward for Ubisoft; I can’t help but feel that this is all just performative, just a matter of sacrificing public lambs for the sake of saving public face.  It’s obvious that Ubisoft as a whole is rotten to the core, and I doubt that much meaningful change will happen in terms of the work environment for women in the long term... but it WILL have an effect on their output as a developer and publisher no doubt.

I hope I’m wrong for the sake of all the women that work there, but this industry as a whole is just SO utterly rotten that I can’t see it happening...

Still.  Let’s discuss!

[Happenstance]

It'll be interesting to see if they mention it tonight at all.

[Mandalore]

Is it positions of power which drive people to do these things, or would they have been like it anyway?

I wonder if it'll jeopardise any potential collaborations with Nintendo in the future. A Mario + Rabbids sequel is probably in development, could that quietly get cancelled?

[Dcubed]

9 minutes ago, Happenstance said:

It'll be interesting to see if they mention it tonight at all.

I reckon the odds are good that they’ll mention it in passing.  The whole A New Age For Ubisoft shtick would fit the spirit of a next-gen blow-out “Ubisoft Forward” event to a tee after all... easy PR win here.

 

3 minutes ago, Mandalore said:

Is it positions of power which drive people to do these things, or would they have been like it anyway?

I wonder if it'll jeopardise any potential collaborations with Nintendo in the future. A Mario + Rabbids sequel is probably in development, could that quietly get cancelled?

I think it’s a bit of both.  It’s absolutely a cultural thing within the western tech and video game industries in general; but the notion of Absolute Power only serves to amplify the effect.  Perpetrators of sexual abuse largely do it for the feeling of power that it gives them; so becoming drunk on power will no doubt accentuate the tendency to abuse.

As for a potential Mario & Rabbids sequel? I think it could have an impact... but I also reckon that if it’s currently in the works? Then it’s probably close enough to release at this point that it would be unlikely to get cancelled (the original game came out 3 years ago after all; a sequel would probably be almost ready to go by this point).

Anything after that point though? Yeah, it could well impact on potential Nintendo related projects.  Especially as the PS5 and Series X come rolling along.

[Will]

I’m going to keep anything I say on the wider industry rather than specifically on Ubisoft, I just started working there on Monday and as you’d expect this has been a massive thing at the whole company. Anything I say here or in any other comments is not in any way representative of Ubisoft.

I’m not at all surprised things like this are happening, and I’m 100% certain that more cases like this will come up in the near future. There are some huge issues in the industry, particularly on the development side, that make things like this almost inevitable. There is a self-fulfiling cycle of people who are attracted to the industry and the way they get rewarded (or not reprimanded) and the ways the behave in and outside of the office. A huge % of the industry is male and skewed toward the less socially aware type of person. Throw in a quite macho work culture with very hard pushing for success and profit over anything else and it’s a recipe for disaster.

Even with companies working very hard to rectify the imbalances it’s going to take years to get to any sort of parity on office diversity. In a simialr vein to the discussions we’ve been having in the racism thread I think there is a lot of educating and learning going to be required by a lot of people before things even start to move towards getting better, and it will take time.

The publishing side (in my experience) of the business is much better, as there are a wider set of roles that interest a wider set of people, but it’s still not perfect. There is a big party culture which can lead to problems but at least those tend to be less ‘planned’ in a sense.

In conclusion, the industry has a lot of work to do on this, I don’t expect this to be the end of it by a long way.

[Glen-i]

I have to admit, it's been fascinating watching case after case of sexual harassment in the industry being exposed over the past few weeks. You know, in the kind of way that a continuous chain of cars crashing would no doubt draw your attention.

Just yesterday, I noticed that on my Twitter page, I refer to myself as an "Avid, British Gamer who does a bit of drawing now and again"

It's accurate, I really like playing games. But there was a twinge of embarrassment I felt with it which made me consider changing the word "Gamer", despite doing nothing of the sort that we've seen come to light recently.

I wonder if anyone else is starting to feel the same way now that a lot of "Gamers" are being exposed as the kind of scumbag who would do this?

[Will]

It’s funny, despite being the biggest media industry in the world, people are still embarrassed to say they even like games a lot of the time. I know a lot of people who have joined companies I’ve been at say they’ve never spoken about games in the office before due to getting weird looks whenever they do. I’m in two minds as to how this will change things. On one hand, it’s obviously shit and something nobody would want to be associated with. On the other, I’m not sure anyone without a fairly deep level of understanding would even know about so does it really matter?

Personally games is such a huge part of my life, both as a fan and a career, that I’m not going to let some idiotic twats change how I approach it with other people.

[Happenstance]

https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-will-not-directly-address-abuse-allegations-during-ubisoft-forward
 

Ubisoft have confirmed that because tonight’s stream is pre-recorded it won’t be addressing the allegations.

[Will]

Which I think is the right decision. Tonight’s event is a media release about content, not a business update about the company. There will be a time and a place to address the operational issues and I’m sure they will take that opportunity when it comes.

[Ashley]

I'm curious (or maybe worried is the better word) to see if this pre-recorded thing will feature those that have been accused. To continue to give voices to them would be an incredibly tone-deaf thing to do. Even with the tight deadline they could either postpone, remove or edit out those parts. If they choose not to it will say a lot about their opinions about it all.

[Dcubed]

1 hour ago, Ashley said:

I'm curious (or maybe worried is the better word) to see if this pre-recorded thing will feature those that have been accused. To continue to give voices to them would be an incredibly tone-deaf thing to do. Even with the tight deadline they could either postpone, remove or edit out those parts. If they choose not to it will say a lot about their opinions about it all.

Good point, didn’t think about that.  Will be interesting to see what happens...

Edited July 12, 2020 by Dcubed

[Ike]

On 12/07/2020 at 5:43 PM, Glen-i said:

I have to admit, it's been fascinating watching case after case of sexual harassment in the industry being exposed over the past few weeks. You know, in the kind of way that a continuous chain of cars crashing would no doubt draw your attention.

Just yesterday, I noticed that on my Twitter page, I refer to myself as an "Avid, British Gamer who does a bit of drawing now and again"

It's accurate, I really like playing games. But there was a twinge of embarrassment I felt with it which made me consider changing the word "Gamer", despite doing nothing of the sort that we've seen come to light recently.

I wonder if anyone else is starting to feel the same way now that a lot of "Gamers" are being exposed as the kind of scumbag who would do this?

I've always hated the term, too many negative connotations which just get more added to it every year.

I'm guessing you're referring to some allegations being made within the Smash community. But those also made some woman come forward in the Fire Emblem (Youtube) community.

[Glen-i]

10 hours ago, Ike said:

I've always hated the term, too many negative connotations which just get more added to it every year.

I'm guessing you're referring to some allegations being made within the Smash community. But those also made some woman come forward in the Fire Emblem (Youtube) community.

That's definitely the one that hit closest to home.

I mean, I wasn't a huge fan of the Smash competitive community in the first place. Way too stubborn in what should be allowed in Smash Bros. (Did you know that Castle Siege, that Fire Emblem stage from Brawl is banned from competitive tournaments, even with hazards off, because it has a tiny ramp in the middle of the stage? They are the epitome of "No Fun Allowed")

When I was hosting my weekly Smash sessions at the community centre before Corona hit, there was once this kid's older brother who suggested to me that I was teaching the kids to play Smash Bros. wrong because I allowed any stage, had items on, and let up to 8 people play at once. I told him in the politest way to get bent.

Call me mad, but I don't think a group of 5 to 12 year olds would prefer to wait around for more than half an hour to play one 2 player match without items and on nothing but Battlefield.

Yeah, getting a bit off-topic there, but with the amount of cases showing up from that particular community, I now have an even bigger case to dislike them.

[Fierce_LiNk]

On 12/07/2020 at 11:23 AM, Dcubed said:

While this is of course, a positive step forward for Ubisoft; I can’t help but feel that this is all just performative, just a matter of sacrificing public lambs for the sake of saving public face.  It’s obvious that Ubisoft as a whole is rotten to the core, and I doubt that much meaningful change will happen in terms of the work environment for women in the long term... but it WILL have an effect on their output as a developer and publisher no doubt.

I hope I’m wrong for the sake of all the women that work there, but this industry as a whole is just SO utterly rotten that I can’t see it happening...

Still.  Let’s discuss!

I haven't been following this issue too closely, so I won't know the full details and am just going on what's in this thread.

We've seen what mass groups of people can do on social media when they want to voice their displeasure. So, Ubisoft have no choice really but to change, or else the wrath that they'll face from the gaming community and the Twitterverse will just be hugely damaging. If there were to be many more cases coming out after this, then...god help them, is all we can really say. They have to get to the root of these issues and be hugely proactive in doing so. It's going to take years for the industry as a whole and we'll no doubt hear of many more cases from other places. Once one has come out, it gives others the confidence to step forward. 

I do think we'll see some meaningful changes and changes in attitude, which is a great thing. Above all, the behaviour from some was unacceptable and the whole company has to distance themselves from this being the norm at their workplace. 

[Julius]

Jason Schreier has just released a piece on this for Bloomberg:

At work at the moment so won't get a chance to read it until later, but those excerpts aren't exactly flattering. There need to be more effective ways to protect employees from this, and given everything else that goes in the industry with crunch, mistreatment, etc., it still boggles my mind that this is an industry without a unified union. It might be more difficult to put together than say what's in place in Hollywood, given the global scale of the video game industry by comparison as opposed to it being focused in one hotspot, but something has to be done. 

[Will]

There isn’t much more of interest in the article to be honest. There is a lot coming out from all of this and I expect even more yet to come. I do wodner if this will bring out more issues at other companies too, would probably do the industry good to expose a lot more of this stuff.

3 hours ago, Julius said:

it still boggles my mind that this is an industry without a unified union. It might be more difficult to put together than say what's in place in Hollywood, given the global scale of the video game industry by comparison as opposed to it being focused in one hotspot, but something has to be done.

People have (and continue to) try to make something like this happen. I’m not really sure why it never takes off. I suspect the industry is still a passion for a lot of people and with limited roles it’s easy for companies to hold the power. People working in the industry probably also don’t associate themselve with needing a union either.

[Dcubed]

Shock horror, a misogynistic company makes misogynistic games...

... trust Ubisoft to design a game where you play as a playable woman character who gets raped as you feel the vibration through the controller! The personality of a game's creators absolutely shows through their work.

I really hope this scandal isn't allowed to be swept under the carpet like what Ubisoft are currently trying to do.

Until Yves is forced out of the company though? I don't think any real, meaningful change will happen at Ubisoft...

6 hours ago, Julius said:

it still boggles my mind that this is an industry without a unified union. It might be more difficult to put together than say what's in place in Hollywood, given the global scale of the video game industry by comparison as opposed to it being focused in one hotspot, but something has to be done. 

The big problem with this industry is that it is heavily dominated by US based developers/publishers (despite Ubisoft being French, it is primarily a US based company).  Unionisation in America is a near impossible task to achieve now for industries that didn't grandfather in a union system back in the 50s-60s (like Hollywood did).  So as a result, everybody suffers now.

Edited July 21, 2020 by Dcubed

[Dcubed]

Another fab update from ol' Jim.  Thank God for him.

[Ganepark32]

Chris Kerr over at Gamasutra with a new article on further allegations out of several of the Ubisoft studios, including allegations that it has gone as far Yves Guillemot and the board favouring to keep abusive staff because they were deemed talented.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/368010/New_allegations_show_the_cycle_of_abuse_and_misconduct_runs_deep_at_Ubisoft.php

I've stuck up for Ubisoft a lot in the past prior to all of this coming out, more so on regards to people ripping into them for the titles their making and such, but I can't support whats happening over there, especially as its very unlikely to change with Guillemot in charge of sorting it out and decisions have been made by himself and the board to pretty much brush some of this aside.

I had been looking forward to AC Valhalla because I find the Viking era fascinating but I don't think I can support that title or Ubisoft. It's disgusting how far up and wide spread this is across such a large developer. I obviously want to support those who've worked stupid hours bringing the game together, some of whom will have been put through this abuse, but I also don't want to be propping up a company that has let this go on for so long and who will likely compensate its higher ups, some of whom will be those accused of horrendous abuse of colleagues, handsomely in light of good sales of the game.

From the outside looking in, with all these allegations it really does seem like Ubisoft is rotten to the core and sorting this mess out is going to take a long time. It'll take a long time to win over customer trust with this (yes, I imagine that the average consumer isn't bothered about this and that things like Watch Dogs Legion and AC Valhalla will sell really well but I think it'll have an impact on how the studio and its work in general is viewed) but an even longer time to sort itself in the eyes of those in the industry.

I'm just shocked that more of this hasn't come out about other developers beyond Ubisoft and places like Riot Games and such. The floodgates are open, however, and i suspect if there is anything similar happening elsewhere, it won't be long in coming.

[Dcubed]

New stories of abuse are coming out of Rocksteady now...

[Julius]

Just now, Dcubed said:

New stories of abuse are coming out of Rocksteady now...

Going to have to give this a watch later, but damn this sucks. It sucks in every industry, in every case of abuse. I know that's it not everywhere...but it's sure starting to feel like it