Ubisoft makes structural changes following recent allegations

Over the past few weeks, Ubisoft has witnessed many current and former employees speaking up about the abusive behaviour of managers and the leadership's misconduct, leading to serious allegations against employees at almost all company levels. The most prominent example is tied to the former creative director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Ashraf Ismail, who surprisingly ceded responsibility for his major project after personal affairs came to light.

After many other employees found the courage to open up, an unpleasant insight into the toxic working conditions at Ubisoft's worldwide studios has been made public. In an open letter CEO Yves Guillemot addresses both short and long term changes that should ensure that the company's externally communicated values also apply to all internal aspects and - first and foremost - its workers.

For this purpose, Ubisoft will establish two individual teams working to improve the work environment and help to make the company more diverse. Anonymous surveys and regular team meetings will be held to explicitly address such concerns. According to the CEO, external contact persons will be brought on board, so that direct leadership involvement might be avoided. Independent control bodies are currently investigating the many allegations in order to make a just judgment and take the necessary steps, to make Ubisoft a better place to work, Guillemot wrote. He makes it clear that a collective change of the company structure is necessary:

"We have significant work to do to improve the ways in which we operate and collaborate, and I am personally committed to ensuring we make these fundamental changes. They need to be profound, and we need to implement them quickly at all levels of the organization."

"Specifically, I have decided to revise the composition of the Editorial Department, transform our human resource processes, and improve the accountability of all managers on these subjects."