Rayman Creator Accused Of Abuse Following Ubisoft Departure
Legendary Ubisoft developer Michel Ancel, creator of Rayman and Beyond Good & Evil, has been accused of harassment and abuse in the workplace, shortly after his departure from the company. He joins a long and ever-growing list of Ubisoft employees who have been outed for hateful behavior in recent months.
Ubisoft has never been most people's favorite game developer. The company puts out some well-loved games, like the Assassin's Creed series and the successful family of Tom Clancy shooters. But it seems that for every one successful game the studio puts out, two new controversies erupt to drag Ubisoft's name through the mud. It faced harsh criticism recently for vilifying the Black Lives Matter movement in a recent mobile game, Tom Clancy's Elite Squad. The game's opening cinematic identifies a shadowy conspiracy organization that is using protestors to spread unrest throughout America, and even uses the raised fist image symbolic of Black Lives Matter to identify the sinister group. This cinematic rightfully caused a lot of outrage amongst gamers, and unfortunately, it's far from Ubisoft's only offense.
A new controversy has been reported by French journalists Erwan Cario and Marius Chapuis concerning the behavior of Michel Ancel. The story is translated on ResetEra (via The Gamer) and describes some frankly atrocious behavior from the famous game designer. According to several employees who were interviewed, Ancel is a manipulative and abusive boss, liable to tell employees that their work is great only to viciously contradict himself in later meetings. He was also accused of perpetuating crunch culture by forcing his subordinates to constantly make and remake parts of the game depending on his ever-changing vision. According to employees his behavior has led to widespread burnout and depression, and one veteran was quoted as saying "Around me, I've seen a good dozen people go on sick leave, probably more... Meeting people with tears in their eyes, it happens often. It's the first time I've seen that at Ubi." It's possible that these accusations are what led Ancel to leave the company last week.
A particularly enraging aspect of this new development is the fact that CEO Yves Guillemot was apparently well aware of the accusations that were lobbied against Ancel, but chose to ignore them, prioritizing his relationship with the developer and the acclaim that his skill at game creation brought to Ubisoft. Guillemot released a video on Twitter not long before a recent Ubisoft Forward presentation, addressing and apologizing for the workplace issues that had been revealed in Ubisoft, as well as the misrepresentation of Black Lives Matter. Most found this video halfhearted and underwhelming, and it's especially disappointing having learned that there were even more issues Guillemot was close to that he never addressed.
It's a major disappointment to see such a prominent game developer treat its employees this way. Video games are supposed to bring someone joy, and seeing this much misery and distress involved in their creation tarnishes their whole purpose. It's a frustratingly widespread issue, too; other developers like Rocksteady have been facing very similar controversies. No one deserves to be treated this way, especially not the hardworking developers who bring life to the games people love. Hopefully Ubisoft will finally learn from these controversies and take real, solid steps to improve the conduct of its employees in the future.