Far Cry 6 developer Ubisoft and its CEO and founder, Yves Guillemot, are the targets of a criminal complaint about “institutional harassment” within the company. Last summer, a myriad of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct reports focused on several high-level executives at Ubisoft became known. These executives include former HR head Cecile Cornet and former chief creative officer Serge Hascoët who were heavily involved with facilitating the sexist, toxic environment at company headquarters. According to the many testimonies after the story first broke, this toxicity also stretches throughout Ubisoft’s many studios.
According to a report by Kotaku, Solidaires Informatiques has filed a criminal suit with the French court against several current and former executives at Ubisoft – including Guillemot. While Guillemot isn’t directly accused of any involvement with the harassment claims, he is accused of helping facilitate institutional harassment at the workplace that reportedly spans years. Meaning that hundreds of current and former employees are affected – most of them women.
“The complaint targets Ubisoft as a legal entity for institutional sexual harassment for setting up, maintaining and reinforcing a system where sexual harassment is tolerated because it is more profitable for the company to keep harassers in place than to protect its employees,” said Solidaires Informatique Jeu Vidéo in a translated tweet given to Kotaku.
Solidaires Informatiques is also responsible for reports about French developer Quantic Dream’s toxic workplace, for which the latter issuing the former in a defamation suit. A verdict on that suit was expected July 8, but no information is available as of this writing.
The complaint made is under the belief that Guillemot was informed of the ongoing harassment claims, as was Cornet, who is accused of knowingly perpetuating the toxic environment while overseeing the HR department. Hascoët is also a target in this new complaint.
Because of the reported lack of progress in rectifying workplace toxicity, Ubisoft is afraid of losing “talented” developers. Outside of the videos by Guillemot addressing the situation, Ubisoft has not made much effort in communicating its path to fixing its internal issues. With its Ubisoft Forward event at E3 a receding memory, all eyes are once again on the darkness still residing in the company at the moment thanks to its CEO and other executives.
Source: Kotaku
