Ubisoft's CEO Apologizes for the Scandal; Jason Schreier Retorts
Ubisoft has published a video in which its CEO, Yves Guillemot, apologizes for the scandal revealed in July. However, his words do not appeal to Jason Schreier, who is responsible for revealing controversial information from behind the scenes of the French giant.
- Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, has apologized for the scandal in his company, while ensuring that appropriate steps have already been taken to eliminate unwanted behavior;
- However, Jason Schreier of Bloomberg's editorial team, who led to the reveal of the scandal, criticized his statement, pointing out that information about miscounduct in the company "has been gathering dust in company logs for years.
Ubisoft's CEO, Yves Guillemot, has taken an official position on the numerous cases of miscounduct that have occurred among the company's employees over the years. Those unfamiliar with the subject should be briefly reminded that it concerns discrimination against women, company meetings in strip clubs, sexual harassment, racism, violence and the cult of man in the Assassin's Creed series. You can read more about this in our July message. Although this scandal was followed by numerous layoffs at the highest levels of the company, it would not stop there.
Guillemot apologizes to "all those who have been hurt," ensuring that his team has already taken appropriate steps to eliminate the unwanted behavior. However, Jason Schreier, an industry journalist working for Bloomberg, who brought the case to light, points out that Guillemot's words do not reflect the scale of the problem; moreover, at the highest levels of Ubisoft, everything has been known for years and nothing has been done to improve the situation. But let's start from the beginning...
Yves Guillemot apologizes...
As Guillemot says in the video:
“This summer, we learned that certain Ubisoft employees did not uphold our company’s values, and that our systems failed to protect the victims of their behavior. I am truly sorry to everyone who was hurt. We have taken significant steps to remove or sanction those who have violated our values and code of conduct. And we are working out how to improve our system and processes. We are also working to improve diversity and inclusion at all levels of the company."
One example of the latter is to increase funding for a $1 million post-graduate program for game developers over the next five years, and to focus on creating opportunities for all under-represented groups, such as women and people of color, to join the company. Nevertheless, Guillemot argues that the French giant is now at the beginning of a "long journey" and "it takes time to make a real difference".
Ubisoft's president also took a stance on a fictional group resembling the Black Lives Matter movement, which was presented as agitators trying to introduce citizen control in Tom Clancy's Elite Squad. As an apology, the French giant will make an additional donation to the National Association for the Promotion of the Colorful People (NAACP).
...and Jason Schreier criticizes
Jason Schreier responded immediately, and his words to Guillemot were short.
After a while, he clarified his statement:
"After everything we've learned, it's fascinating to watch Ubisoft's CEO continue to maintain that the company wasn't aware of any of this."
Schreier makes it clear that, in his opinion, Guillemot is not entirely sincere, convincing everyone that he did not find out about everything until "this summer". Although from today's perspective the most important thing seems to be the fact thatt the scandal has not been swept under the rug, only time will tell if the steps taken by Guillemot's team will be enough to restore Ubisoft's damaged reputation.
