Ubisoft Forward live stream ‘won’t address’ sexual misconduct scandal

Ubisoft has said Sunday’s Ubisoft Forward live stream will not address the company’s ongoing reorganisation due to a wave sexual misconduct allegations.

The E3-style event is due to air at 12pm PT / 8pm BST, just 24 hours after the Assassin’s Creed publisher confirmed that two of its most influential executives had resigned as part of its internal restructuring.

Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët, who oversaw all of the company’s games as head of its influential editorial team, has resigned from his position. Yannis Mallat, MD of Ubisoft’s Canadian studios, has also stepped down from his role and left the company.

Additionally, Ubisoft said it would be appointing a new Global Head of HR to replace Cécile Cornet, who has decided to step down from this role. In parallel, the Company said it’s restructuring its HR team “in order to adapt it to the new challenges of the video game industry.”

The news that Ubisoft would not acknowledge the sexual misconduct scandal was met with criticism from members of the media on Sunday, who noted that the first allegations emerged nearly three weeks ago.

The French publisher’s first fully digital conference will be streamed live on Sunday, July 12 at 12pm PT/3pm ET/8pm BST/9pm CEST, and promises to include exclusive game news and product reveals.

The Watch Dogs franchise’s latest instalment, Watch Dogs Legion, will be one of the main titles on show at Forward, with Ubisoft set to debut the first gameplay running on next-gen consoles.

The publisher will also reveal more of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Hyper Scape, the free-to-play, 100-player battle royale FPS soft-launched earlier this month.

Ubisoft will give away free copies of Watch Dogs 2 on PC to viewers of the Forward event, it’s said.