In November 2020, Hugues Ricoeur, managing director of Ubisoft Singapore, was removed from his position following a leadership audit sparked by a Gamasutra report on abuse and misconduct throughout Ubisoft. According to the report, Ricoeur was accused of sexual harassment by multiple sources, and the complainant faced repercussions in the workplace, which Ubi's human resources department ignored.

A new report by Kotaku delves deeper into working conditions at the studio under and after Ricoeur's leadership, including the failure to address sexual harassment complaints, the pay gap between local and expatriate employees, and the "French ceiling" that makes it difficult to promote employees from other countries ( Ubisoft is based in Paris), and several other serious problems have been testified to.

"There is a joke that the French have a French multiplier and the skin color has a skin color multiplier," one employee told the site.

While the studio's problems are extensive, Ricoeur himself is a particularly troublesome figure. His promotion to head of the studio, replacing Olivier de Rotallier, was described by one employee as "like replacing a velvet glove with an executioner." The situation was especially bad for members of the Skull and Bones team, according to the report. One developer told the site that he had been warned "not to upset Ricoeur, as he is very vindictive and petty," while another claimed that anyone who made such a mistake would be "erased."

Gamasutra's investigation into Ricour and Ubisoft Singapore comes amid a flood of allegations of abuse and misconduct by other Ubisoft executives, resulting in Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët, Yannis Mallat, managing director of Ubisoft Canada, and Cécile Cornet, head of global human resources, among others, resigned. Ricour did not suffer the same consequences, however: three sources told Kotaku that Ricour went on leave shortly after Gamasutra's report was published, but Ubisoft has refused to investigate the matter unless a formal complaint is filed through its human resources department or internal anonymous reporting tool The company refused to conduct an investigation unless there was a formal complaint through its human resources department or an internal anonymous reporting tool. According to the report, Ricour returned to work shortly thereafter and apologized to anyone who was offended by his actions at a subsequent town hall.

A third-party human resources firm invited to further investigate the matter determined in October 2020 that there was not enough information to justify disciplinary action against Ricour, but in November, Ubisoft's studio chief operating officer, appointed in August 2020 Virginie Haas announced internally that Ricoeur was being removed as head of the studio. He was not fired, but transferred to Ubisoft's Paris headquarters. His LinkedIn account now lists him as Ubisoft's Director of Production Intelligence.

Almost a year after Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot apologized to "everyone who was hurt" by the workplace abuse, he explicitly refused to take responsibility for it. According to many accounts, little has changed since then: last week, the Solidaires Informatique labor union filed a new complaint against Ubisoft in France, alleging that executives, including Guillemot himself, have encouraged and enabled a culture of "systematic sexual harassment" at the company that continues to this day The union alleged that executives, including Guillemot himself, have encouraged and enabled a culture of "systematic sexual harassment" at the company that continues to this day.

Kotaku's investigation into Ubisoft Singapore's workplace culture came shortly after another report on the troubled development of Skull & Bones. According to employees at the studio, the studio has undergone numerous changes of direction and major reboots over the years, with one former employee pointing to "the toxic culture that permeates the Singapore studio" as the main cause of production problems. Despite the long-term problems, Ubisoft is committed to making it happen: Skull and Bones is currently scheduled for release in 2022-23.