A day after the report came out, Guillemot announced he was going to “revise the composition of the Editorial Department.”, The letter employees sent on June 26 did not mention Béland by name, nor others at Ubisoft Toronto with allegations against them, but management at the studio did respond. Members of the studio, many still hopeful that Ubisoft can be a good place to work, are calling on management to deal more openly with problems of misconduct and how HR handles them, and to institute changes that could help create a safer and more respectful work environment. But she had heard about HR not following up on incidents in the past and was hesitant to do so. “I sort of brushed it off because it felt impersonal and it felt like just a representation of how he looked at women, not an actual targeted thing.” She said she also didn’t feel encouraged to make a report since it seemed like a person with more power than her who was in a position to escalate the issue didn’t automatically do that. Much of the studio’s Facebook page looks like an ad shoot for a beer company. [5], "Ubisoft Toronto Brings 800 Jobs To Ontario", "Jade Raymond heading up Ubisoft Toronto", "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 1 of 4", "The Rise of Ubisoft Toronto: How a New Team Nailed its AAA Debut", "Ubisoft Employees Have 'Grave Concerns' Over Toronto Studio's Misconduct Allegations", "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 2 of 4", "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 3 of 4", "Building On Conviction: Inside Ubisoft Toronto, Page 4 of 4", "Jade's Empire: Building Ubisoft's Super-Studio", "Ubisoft Opens New Performance Capture Studio", "Ubisoft Toronto managing director Jade Raymond leaves company", "Ubisoft Toronto is Working on a New AAA IP", "Ubisoft unveils Starlink video game with toys that attach to your controller", "Ubisoft Toronto: "We can bring life back to toys-to-life, "Ubisoft Toronto's big bet: A new spin on toy-based video games with Starlink", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ubisoft_Toronto&oldid=972113538, Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies, Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments, All Wikipedia articles written in Canadian English, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, This page was last edited on 10 August 2020, at 06:51. [6][8] By May 2010, Ubisoft Toronto had received more than 2,000 job applications. 22K likes. Instead, he continued on as the studio’s star creative director, briefly leaving for Epic Games in early 2019 before returning to Ubisoft in an even more powerful role in the company’s centralized Editorial division. This list denotes games in the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Franchise that have been developed by Ubisoft Milan. They also said they were told no report could be filed without an official statement from the victim herself. He has not publicly addressed what is being said about him. The studio was founded in 2010.
Raymond left the studio and was succeeded as general manager by Parizeau. Even employees who described working at Ubisoft Toronto as the highlight of their careers were critical of the HR department. These investigations are ongoing, and we intend to take swift, appropriate action based on their outcomes. But based on conversations with 12 current and former employees of Ubisoft Toronto, the studio’s problems appear to go beyond a few men like Béland and how they may have been dealt with in the past. The Womxn Develop at Ubisoft programming challenge is an exciting weekend where over the course of 48 hours you will create a game entirely in C++. Interested in playing exclusive game content to help improve our games for everyone? They still want Ubisoft to be the place they believe it can be and are disappointed that it’s taken so long for studio leadership to confront some of these issues. Ubisoft announced in July 2009 that it was establishing a Toronto-based development studio. “It made me feel self-conscious and lowered my self esteem,” she said. Sign up below to be alerted when the Ubisoft API becomes available and to find out about mentorship sessions with Ubisoft Programmers that will teach you how to tackle this exciting technical gameplay challenge. [1][2] Unlike other Ubisoft studios, Ubisoft Toronto was immediately allowed to lead development of its games, whereas others start by only supporting larger studios like Ubisoft Montreal, though Ubisoft Toronto also served to support Montreal as part of its initial role as a sister studio.
“I didn’t react right away, because I was sort of like, ‘What is happening here?’ and then by the time I realized what was happening he stopped,” she said. In this article, for the sake of clarity, we’ll call her Jane. The logic behind it was frequently cited in interviews with our sources as a deterrent to employees reporting issues to HR in the first place. “He asked whether I ‘wanted it on file’ that I had called someone out as sexist and that ‘It’s a really serious accusation and lots of conversations will need to happen if you make this formal,’ while motioning to his notebook and waving his pen around,” she said. This should have been a time focused on the outward celebration of a new game launch, but it has become a potential turning point of inward examination and reform. When asked about Béland and these deeper issues involving Ubisoft two days before the news of Béland’s resignation, a company rep avoided answering any specific questions. Sources who spoke to us shared problems that go beyond HR policies or particular individuals, however. Given how chummy and reliant on who you know the industry is with people moving between studios every two seconds you just know things is systemic across the board. The recent allegations and employee feedback have made it clear that we must do more as a company to ensure our employees and community feel respected, safe, and empowered, and we will be taking significant, tangible actions to improve. The past two weeks have been filled with accounts, some anonymous, some with names attached, as people, mostly women, take the risk of speaking out on social media about harassment, abuse, and assault, mostly against men in gaming. It didn’t help that they’d heard the story about Béland choking a coworker and how nothing had ever seemed to come of it. “So I didn’t feel like there was a point in stirring the pot and branding myself with the incident.”, Later in the day she said she was contacted by a senior member of the management team who asked her what she wanted to do about what had happened the night before, and added that Béland wanted to apologize. Studio leaders were tasked with ramping up from zero to 800 employees in 10 years as part of an investment deal with the Ontario government in exchange for $263 million CAD in subsidies, according to press reports from 2009. That’s not how you conduct yourself.”, She told a coworker the next day at work what had happened, and they encouraged her to make a report. Ubisoft announced in July 2009 that it was establishing a Toronto-based development studio. Brand new office building located in a perfectly convenient area in Cary near RDU. It’s been part of our culture and philosophy since the beginning.”. Some feared that reporting incidents would put a bullseye on their back. We do not and will not tolerate abuse, harassment or discrimination of any kind. “We, the undersigned employees of Ubisoft Toronto, are coming to you with grave concerns about ongoing reported harassment and an inability to feel safe or protected within our own studio,” it began. “At that time I just wanted it to go away, because I didn’t feel it was even worth filing a report,” she said. “I didn’t feel threatened by it. Games developed by Ubisoft Toronto include Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Far Cry 5, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, and Watch Dogs Legion. Over one hundred employees of Ubisoft Toronto wrote to the studio's managing director Alexandre Parizeau in late June to report concerns related to sexual misconduct and the lack of action taken by management and human resources in response to their prior reports. “I was incredibly uncomfortable, but also this behavior was so normalized. [9][10] By the latter, the studio had received 30,000 applications and given 1,800 job interviews. We have policies and procedures in place that address misconduct and provide ways in which employees can report any inappropriate behavior. “I don’t see [Béland] as some mustache-twirling villainous type,” Jane said. The letter also noted that the employees “expect HR to never order or suggest that a victim confront their abuser about an incident,” either. Sources who shared their experiences at these events spoke of men at Ubisoft Toronto who pretended to be producers to try and get newer women at the studio to dance with them. Ubisoft Toronto is a Canadian video game developer and subsidiary of Ubisoft Entertainment, located in Toronto, Canada. Many of the alleged instances of misconduct described to Kotaku weren’t reported to HR, the people said, because of the department’s reputation for being unhelpful at best. Immediately upon being made aware of these allegations, the company launched comprehensive investigations, which are being supported by specialized external consultants. “The rampant use of alcohol and parties as a retention technique certainly added to—if not created—the permissive culture at Ubisoft Toronto around sexual harassment,” another former Ubisoft Toronto developer said. Ubisoft Toronto, Toronto, ON. “You’re conditioned to feel like you’re lucky to be there,” she said of her time at Ubisoft Toronto, which is just one of several Ubisoft studios named by people speaking out.