Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, in the company's first quarter 2020-21 financial results released today, continued to make "significant changes" to the company to ensure a safe and inclusive workplace for all employees, following multiple allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct against employees, including management He stated that he is committed to making "significant changes" to the company to ensure a safe and inclusive workplace for all employees.

"While Ubisoft's current performance and business outlook has never been stronger, we nevertheless face very serious challenges in the wake of recent allegations and accusations of misconduct and inappropriate behavior within our group. I am determined to make significant changes to improve and strengthen our corporate culture. [We have already taken swift and firm action, announcing and introducing major initiatives to transform our organization. Our primary goal is to ensure a safe and inclusive work environment for all Ubisoft employees. As a leader in our industry, we must be resolute in creating an exemplary corporate culture where everyone feels respected and valued. This is essential to ensuring that all of the talented employees who make up Ubisoft feel fulfilled in their work."

The statement also reiterates the company's "structural transformation" that Gilmo promised earlier this month, citing five "major changes" currently underway: an investigation of allegations by an outside consultant; a confidential "listening and alert platform" for reporting harassment, discrimination and other inappropriate behavior s, a "transformation" of the company's HR processes, and the creation of a "Head of Workplace Culture" and a "Head of Diversity and Inclusion" reporting directly to the CEO.

A very interesting and, as far as I can tell, new point in the statement is that "a portion of the team leader's bonus will be linked to their ability to create a positive and inclusive work environment." Gilmo also referred to this point in his opening comments on today's investor conference call, describing it as "new performance criteria" determined by a "new evaluation tool."

This is a vague promise: how exactly and by whom will it be determined? While the goals are laudable, proactivity and inclusiveness are not metrics that can be easily tracked on a spreadsheet.

Guillemot also said that Ubisoft's independent Nominating, Compensation, and Governance Committee has added a new, equally vague-sounding "diversity performance criteria" to his compensation package. At the same time, however, Guillemot refused to accept personal responsibility for the company's failures and brushed off the idea that he might resign as CEO as a result during the Q&A portion of the conference call.

"Every time we were informed of a scandal, we made tough decisions and made sure that those decisions had a clear and positive impact. So it's very important."

"It is now clear that certain individuals have betrayed my trust and have not lived up to the values that Ubisoft shares. I have never and will never compromise my core values and ethics. I will continue to run Ubisoft and transform it to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Ubisoft also struck a damaging blow to recent claims that the developers of "Assassin's Creed" were facing pressure to minimize the role of female characters. In his own statement on an investor conference call, Ubisoft CFO Frederic Duguet laid out a list of several female and minority characters in the company's games, demonstrating the company's commitment to representation.

"We have represented diversity in meaningful ways in our games. And those titles are among our biggest performers and among our most iconic games," Duguet said. 'Players can make their own choices. In Assassin's Creed Odyssey, about a third of players played Cassandra, while in Rainbow Six Siege, Ash was the most popular choice as an attack operator. The diversity I mentioned ranges from gender to ethnic diversity, and also includes strong LGBTQ+ characters and neurodiversity representing autism."

However, actual criticism that Ubisoft's Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët fostered a toxic and misogynistic environment and that the company's marketing department widely believed that female leads would not sell went unaddressed. Hascoët and other Ubisoft executives recently resigned over allegations of workplace abuse, and former public relations director Stone Chin revealed on Twitter yesterday that she was fired last week for "failing to uphold the company's code of conduct over the course of my career."