After 200 days, employee group A Better Ubisoft says none of its demands have been met

A group of Ubisoft employees campaigning for improved working conditions has publicly criticised the company for what it claims is continued inaction.

Last summer the group, which calls itself A Better Ubisoft, released an open letter to its employer calling for “real, fundamental changes” in the wake of sexual misconduct, harassment and discrimination revelations.

Signed by over 1,000 current and former staff, it accused Ubisoft’s management of offering “nothing more than a year of kind words, empty promises, and an inability or unwillingness to remove known offenders”.

The group has now tweeted a new statement claiming that 200 days have passed since that open letter, and that Ubisoft management has failed to meet any of its demands.

According to the statement, staff were emailed an internal video by chief people officer Anika Grant which gave the results of Ubisoft’s global employee satisfaction survey for the past year.

However, the statement claims that Grant’s presentation was “not only very brief but incredibly opaque, with the entire survey summarised as six talking points: three positive and three negative”.

The statement also says: “In an email on December 14, Anika said that 71% of employees feel comfortable being ourselves at work. What wasn’t acknowledged was how many feel we have to hide our true selves for fear of judgement or reprobation from peers or managers.”

It also claimed that despite Grant’s assurance during the presentation that Ubisoft intends to “really dig in to understand feedback from minority and under-represented voices”, the staff survey only collected age and binary gender data.

“We’re tired of having to repeatedly explain these seemingly obvious points to a management team who are either accidentally ignorant or simply don’t want to listen,” the statement concludes.

“We push on because we care about our work. We care about the people we work with, the games we make, and we desperately want to repair this company. Our goal is a fairer, better Ubisoft.”

The group also reiterated the four key demands it had previously made, insisting they remain unchanged.

Ubisoft told VGC last July that it had “carefully read” the open letter and was taking the issues raised “very seriously”. And while it claimed to have “made significant and meaningful changes” designed to improve working conditions in response to past events, it also acknowledged there was “still more work to be done”.

The publisher’s CEO Yves Guillemot subsequently echoed those sentiments in a company-wide email reacting to the open letter.

In it, he referenced a number of structural reforms Ubisoft had made over the previous year, such as the appointment of Grant, the introduction of anonymous harassment reporting mechanisms, updating its code of conduct, and carrying out compulsory company-wide anti-sexism and anti-harassment training.

“These are important steps forward, but this is a long process, and there is still work to be done,” Guillemot wrote.

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Responding to Ubisoft’s statement and Guillemot’s message at the time, A Better Ubisoft said few of its points had been addressed.

“We are aware that the company has made some improvements, and we are happy to hear that Yves and the leadership team agree that it is not enough,” it said.

“However, Ubisoft continues to protect and promote known offenders and their allies. We see management continuing to avoid this issue.

“It is also worth clarifying that an invitation to reach out to company management personally is not the same as having a collective seat at the table.”