There has been a lot about Ubisoft in the news over the last couple of weeks, and that’s for a very good reason. Around the time that Assassin’s Creed Valhalla launched, it came out that several high profile names were guilty of a lot of misconduct. Furthermore, the inner workings of the company seemed to almost enable this, with any complaints being ignored and those guilty of the actions being praised for the work they did, with their actions being hidden by the company. After it all came to a head last year, the company dedicated itself to change. However, it doesn’t look like enough has been done.
As per the Assassin’s Creed Sisterhood, a number of changes have been made at Ubisoft, but these don’t actually sound like anything new. Sure, the big profile names are gone because there was never any way of defending what they did. However, the internal systems in place still seem drastically small compared to the problem. Employees are now forced into behavioural classes so that they know how to act in the workplace, something that any decent human being should already know. There’s also a lot being made of the internal anonymous reporting system. This was already in place before all of this kicked off though. The reality is that no matter what you report, it gets ignored by Ubisoft, and nothing comes of it. I’ve seen ex-Ubisoft staff discussing this at the time and now, so I believe it to be pretty true.
There’s a larger issue here about the practices Ubisoft implement in its games. They’re packed with microtransactions and don’t feel like they’re made for fans, they’re made for anyone. Really, all of its games are developed for the widest portion of the public who buy games. Ultimately, this will lead to franchises collapsing, but that’s neither here nor there. Right now, the company needs to have a big shake-up in management. Everyone who ignored the things that were going on needs to move on, and new uncompromised staff need to take their place. It’s a big ask, but if enough people call for it and take action, Ubisoft might actually listen.
