Edition editor Bloomberg Jason Schreier talked to employees Ubisoft on condition of anonymity about sexual harassment and toxic work environment in the publisher’s studios. During the investigation, the journalist also learned that the company’s producers were reluctant to allow employees to make games with female characters in central roles and were categorically against the idea of releasing an AAA project with a female heroine without the ability to choose a male protagonist.… They explained their position by the fact that “games with women are poorly sold”, which in recent years caused complete bewilderment among the team Assassin’s creed, because the market has, for example, Horizon zero dawn with a circulation of over 10 million copies on one Playstation 4…
Ubisoft’s Chief Creative Officer reportedly was behind all the orders Serge Hascoetwho was actually the number two man in the company after the CEO Yves Guillemot… He was in charge of all the games of the main European publishing house and was so powerful that he could give the green light to the development or cancellation of a project with one word. Earlier this year, dozens of people accused Hascoet of harassment, a scandal erupted, Ubisoft fired him…
If we talk about female characters, the marketing department also discouraged employees from them, citing internal research.
- Female characters have always been a sore point for the creators of Assassin’s Creed. They wanted to experiment more with them, but faced disapproval in the process. Schreier writes that the desire of authors to add to the online mode Assassin’s Creed Unity female assassins caused fierce controversy. Hascoet said he would not allow time and resources to be wasted on creating female animation and clothing…
- It was originally supposed that in the next game in the series after Unity, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Jacob and Evie will have the same amount of screen time. But it all ended up being Jacob became the dominant character…
- The main character Assassin’s creed origins turned out to be a man named Bayek, but initially the developers wanted to kill him at the beginning of the story, and make his wife Aya the central character… “However, in the end, the role of Aya gradually diminished, and Bayek became the protagonist,” the article says.
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey offers players the option to play as Alexios or Kassandra, but the original vision of the authors was different. They wanted to create an adventure about Kassandra – no male character… The authorities said it was impossible.
“Current and former Ubisoft employees say these changes, which we didn’t even know about before, are evidence of deep-seated sexism in the company. All directives came from the marketing department and Hascoet personally, who argued that women in the main roles would not sell the game. This misperception has been in the industry for decades. It completely ignores hits like the Tomb Raider series or Horizon Zero Dawn, “says Schreier.
The developers also told the journalist that they often had to dodge, showing their work to Hascoet, and to make big compromises.
The main creative producer was said to have scorned games with linear storytelling and cutscenes. The writers were constantly looking for ways to interest him.
The top management was happy with everything, because Hascoet’s approach worked – the games sold well and brought a stable income for a long time, and competitors tried to copy Ubisoft’s ideas related to open worlds. By 2019, however, there were signs that the chief creative was starting to lose his “creative magic.”… Two major releases of the company immediately failed: The division 2 did not meet the sales expectations, despite the positive ratings, and Ghost recon breakpoint crashed on all fronts, gathering bad press and failing to interest a large audience. By the end of the year, the shares of the publishing house sank by as much as 40%. It became clear that a big shake-up was required.
As a result of these setbacks, the company undertook a complete reorganization of the editorial team, raising seven vice-presidents of the departments under Hascoet at once. The goal was to distribute the power of the main creative producer and ultimately diversify the games.
“All seven people are men,” Schreier writes, pointing out another Ubisoft problem – the lack of women in power.
Against the background of the recent scandal, some of the specialists who went for promotion lost their jobs – they were loudly accused of harassment.
The next part of Assassin’s Creed, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, will be released on November 17, 2023…
Read also: Sea of Thieves livelier than all living: Microsoft boasted an army of fans and sales of the game on Steam…
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