Sexist Behaviors, Discrimination, Ignored Complaints: Ubisoft Montreal Employees, Who Call themselves “The Biggest Video Game Studio in the World”, Recount a “Climate of Terror” While the French Group Debates in a Harassment Scandal sexual.
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Working on “Far Cry has earned me two burnouts, psychological, sexual harassment, sexism, humiliation, and never did human resources deign to listen to me,” wrote an ex-AFP. employee, wishing to remain anonymous.
She worked for several years on this famous franchise of the group, a shooter in an open world with a tropical atmosphere, developed in the red brick premises of Ubisoft studios in Montreal.
Studio for 3000 people
In a team that she describes as one of the most “toxic” in the gigantic studio of 3000 people, she explains that she had to endure remarks about her physique, her emotional situation, and inappropriate invitations from the artistic director, at the cost of blackmail at promotion.
The “climate of terror” was such that she still feared today the repercussions on her career, even outside the group. “When simple artists like us try to defend ourselves against directors, it’s almost impossible for our voice to be heard.”
These words correspond to a dozen others that AFP has obtained and cross-checked since the end of June, when testimonials appeared on social networks first in the world of video games, then more specifically targeting the French group.
With 18,000 employees worldwide – 20% of whom are women in production teams – Ubisoft has since announced the departure of several managers, including its number two, creative director Serge Hascoët, human resources director Cécile Cornet, the director of the Canadian studios Yannis Mallat and two vice-presidents.
“A new page opens for the Montreal studio,” said Ubisoft general manager Christine Burgess Quemard, in a press release announcing the appointment of Christophe Derennes as director of the Montreal studio.
In a press release, the CEO of the group Yves Guillemot promised “major changes in corporate culture”.
“Endemic” sexism
At Ubisoft, sexism, “it’s something that is endemic, and not just in Montreal,” says a long-time employee of the studio. As soon as she arrived, a team leader explained to her that she had hired her “because she was” cute “” but that “to everyone’s surprise, she was doing her job well”.
Year after year, she realizes that there will be “no possibility of advancement. After nine years in the industry, I was paid less than men who returned two years ago. ”
She remembers “a programmer who had his hand half in his pants”, insistent looks. And one day discovers the existence of a distribution list detailing the outfits of the employees “so that the men can walk around (in the premises) and go to look at them”. “I’m pretty sure this mailing list still exists,” she says.
The atmosphere in the studio is “work hard, play hard”, explains another employee. “It creates an unsafe climate, a release of inhibitions and people who behave in a predatory manner.”
The line between work and leisure is blurred.
On Friday, “from 4 p.m., people will buy a beer and bring it back to the office.” During a winter party, she remembers having her buttocks or breasts regularly “pinched” from one building to another via a corridor installed outside, a first event which she then judges ” harmless but which then evolves into other things ”.
“Unfortunately, at Ubisoft, people who do bad things are protected. It is often people who are in high places, and if we go to see human resources or our managers, usually they do nothing, “says a former employee.
“If there is a concern, the targeted person receives a promotion. And if you ask questions about pay equity, you are simply told that you can lower your responsibilities, so that you have less stress, ”she explains. “This is where I left Ubisoft.”
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