Last year, Ubisoft was the subject of numerous allegations of workplace abuse, including physical assault and sexual harassment. Along with specific incidents, the company was accused of having a corporate culture in which sexism, overwork, and misconduct were commonplace. The allegations led to the resignation of several executives, including Vice President Maxime Belin. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot promised "significant" changes at the company; a year later, many fans do not believe Ubisoft has kept that promise.

This doubt is fueled by a recent report in the French newspaper Le Télégramme that some employees do not feel that Ubisoft has fundamentally changed since last summer. The report was widely shared last week, and fans called for a boycott on social media under the banner #HoldUbisoftAccountable.

Without directly referencing the Télégramme report or the hashtag, Ubisoft today released a statement from Guillemot outlining what the company has done since his resignation last year. According to Guillemot, Ubisoft has allowed employees to report misconduct in multiple ways, including anonymously; involved all employees in anti-harassment training; assessed its workplace culture through surveys and focus groups; and brought in a third party to audit its personnel practices. Ubisoft also created a "clearer, more comprehensive, and more workable" code of conduct and required all employees to sign it, Guillemot wrote.

Guillemot also notes the new leadership at Ubisoft. Shortly after the allegations were made, Lidwin Sauer, project director of the Innovation Lab, was appointed to a new position as head of workplace culture. In February of this year, Raashi Sikka was appointed vice president of global diversity and inclusion, and in April, Annika Grant was appointed director of human resources. Both Sikka and Grant previously held similar positions at Uber and faced comparable situations following allegations of sex discrimination and harassment made against the company in 2017; in 2019, Uber will face "a culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who complain about such harassment." and settled with the worker for $4.4 million following accusations that the company had facilitated a "culture of sexual harassment and retaliation against individuals who complained about such harassment.

"Considerable progress has been made and we will continue our efforts with the ambition of becoming an exemplary workplace in the tech industry," Gilmo wrote in a statement today.

Le Télégramme's source was an official of Solidaires Informatique Jeu Vidéo, the gaming workers' union. Union officials told Le Télégramme that they "don't expect anything" from the appointment and that business in Canada has not improved significantly since Christophe Derennes took over as head of Ubisoft Montréal after Yannis Mallat's resignation last year. He stated that this is not the case. Specifically, the source claimed that reports of harassment were "diverted" in December, but the paper did not elaborate on that claim.

The article is not like the 2020 exposé, which revealed a number of specific incidents, but rather an overview of instances of inaction or, as the sources put it, disappointment over inadequate behavior. Nevertheless, the sense that Ubisoft is not doing enough already exists, and this report was a spark. After the report was released, one former employee said that Ubisoft's efforts to engage with the task force felt "ritualistic."

#HoldUbisoftAccountable trended on Twitter as fans discussed the article and urged others to stop buying Ubisoft games. Guillumo's statement today does not change that tone: the general sentiment is that Guillumo himself is either directly responsible for the culture that Ubisoft is now trying to change or indirectly responsible through negligence and should resign as CEO. Guillemot co-founded Ubisoft with his brothers in the 1980s, and the family still controls the company today.

Last week, Ubisoft told GamesIndustry.biz and others that "Ubisoft has implemented significant changes throughout its organization, internal processes and procedures to ensure a safe, inclusive and respectful working environment for all team members," and today A statement similar to the one published today was sent to the press.