Almost three months after a first postponement, the two parties will meet this Monday morning at the Bobigny court. The trial against three former Ubisoft executives is restarting. Originally scheduled for March 10, the trial, in the first hours that it was already stormy, had been postponed to June 2 by the Court, the lawyers of the civil parties, as well as the defense, believing that they only had late access to certain documents in the archive.
The same actors and the same accusations: Serge Hascoët (former creative director of the group), Thomas “Tommy” François (former vice president of the Ubisoft editorial service), as well as Guillaume Patrux (former director of the game) accused of acts of sexual and moral harassment, but also of sexual assault. According to the unions of the French editor, there are about forty cases, distributed for ten years.
Corporate culture of destiny or deplorable individual behaviors?
The case had exploded in 2020 after the revelations of the Liberation newspaper and the numeral site that had received the testimonies of many employees. Ubisoft had fired Tommy François and Guillaume Patrux, while Serge Hascoët, right arm of Yves Guillemot and architect for 20 years of the greatest hits of Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry…) I had chosen to resign.
The unions and employees filed a collective complaint. In particular, Tommy François was criticized for the dissemination of pornographic films in open space, inappropriate comments about the physicist of certain employees, public humiliation and attempt to sexual aggression. His former direct official, Serge Hascoët, must respond for racist or inappropriate comments, sexual and moral harassment. Cases of moral harassment also accused of the last defendant, Guillaume Patrux.
With the reopening of the trial, the unions united behind the employees also hope to put the accusation of Ubisoft, of which they indicate the responsibility in this case and their silence when the facts were proven according to them. A corporate culture of yesteryear that indicate and deserves prosecution by the accusation. They always aspire to see Yves Guillemot, the founder and CEO of the French video game, cited to appear, as well as several senior officials who are still in office.
But Ubisoft has already denied that any appointment appears for its boss or any other member of human resources. The French editor claims to have “cooperated completely with the authorities”, but does not want to end up a trial “that does not concern the company.”
Ubisoft, an absent in the heart of the test
And it is true that Ubisoft retains any comments from the announcement of a trial of its former employees. After this matter, several internal audits were carried out and were carried out, pushing the hexagonal giant to be mainly aware of a corporate culture that has become toxic.
Ubisoft decided many arrangements, either with the departure of numerous executives, more or less directly concerned about the facts, in particular to human resources, than to support employees and release the floor. Inappropriate behavior management processes have been established, with equipment specialized in employees and an improvement in report channels.
The trial will resume from June 2 to 6, with the elements in possession of all parties, but not new names in the list of defendants, to disgust from the plaintiffs. Ubisoft’s shadow will be inclined to this test of an era that the same editor hopes to finish. And the media swim well when the financial results are not in the best case, despite a breath of fresh air granted by the good results of‘Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Source: BFM TV
