Ex-Ubisoft staff arrested after sexual assault and harassment investigation

Five former Ubisoft executives have been arrested following an investigation into alleged instances of sexual assault and harassment within its offices.

• READ MORE: If you care about video games, care about the people who make them, too

Per Libération, three individuals were arrested on October 3 and another two were taken into custody on October 4. Among them are Tommy François and Serge Hascoët, who both left the publisher after the allegations were made public.

François was Ubisoft Paris’ vice president of editorial and creative services, working on series like Assassin’s Creed, Prince Of Persia, Tom Clancy’s The Division, Watch Dogs and others.

Joining in 1988, Hascoët served as Ubisoft’s chief creative officer and oversaw the reboots and revivals of Assassin’s Creed and the two Tom Clancy properties Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon.

Several years ago, Ubisoft was accused of housing “a toxic system within the [third] biggest studio in the industry, dominated by untouchable men, protected by ‘a wall of HR'” in the report published by Libération in 2020.

In response, Ubisoft commenced its own investigations into the claims and conducted an internal survey, concluding one in five employees did not feel “fully respected or safe in the work environment”.

Additionally, women were 30 per cent more likely to experience or witness discrimination than men, while non-binary people were 43 per cent more likely to be targeted.

“We want to start by apologising to everyone affected by this – we are truly sorry,” said Ubisoft in a statement, pledging that it would “do better” in the future.

“Ubisoft has no knowledge of what has been shared and therefore can’t comment,” said a spokesperson to Gamesindustry.biz on the arrests. Neither François, Hascoët or their respective legal representation have addressed what has been alleged about them in Libération‘s report at the time of writing.

In other gaming news, Blizzard Entertainment revealed that Diablo 4 is on its way to Steam in time for the new Season Of Blood event.

The post Ex-Ubisoft staff arrested after sexual assault and harassment investigation appeared first on NME.