Ubisoft puts numerous employees on leave following sexual harassment claims

Ubisoft has put numerous employees on administrative leave following claims of sexual harassment from a variety of individuals in the games industry. 

Reports coming out of Bloomberg claim that Ubisoft has placed Maxime Béland, Tommy Francois, and “several” other employees on leave after the claims of abuse were revealed by a wide variety of sources.

The Bloomberg report claims that numerous high level employees from franchises such as Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed were taken off work as they had individually “faced at least three claims of misconduct” from different individuals in the industry.

Ubisoft spokesperson Stephanie Magnier told Bloomberg that the sexual harassment claims at Ubisoft are “under investigation, so we are not commenting further at this time”.

Ubisoft released a statement regarding the large number of sexual harassment cases revolving around the massive studio, saying:

“Concerning recent allegations raised against certain Ubisoft team members: We want to start by apologising to everyone affected by this – we are truly sorry. We are dedicated to creating an inclusive and safe environment for our teams, players, and communities. It is clear we have fallen short of this in the past. We must do better.

“We have started by launching investigations into the allegations with the support of specialised external consultants. Based on the outcomes, we are fully committed to taking any and all appropriate disciplinary action. As these investigations are ongoing, we can’t comment further. We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behaviour.

“We will be sharing additional measures that we are putting in place with our teams in the coming days. Our goal is to foster an environment that our employees, partners, and communities can be proud of – one that reflects our values and that is safe for everyone.”

The Assassin’s Creed developer isn’t the only one who’s had employees outed for sexual harassment in the recent weeks. Renowned RPG writer Chris Avellone has been taken off multiple projects – including Dying Light 2 – in response to a large number of claims from peers in the industry.