Hey reader, Stephan here speaking on behalf of Steve as well.

Earlier this summer, Ubisoft faced an explosion of allegations by current and former employees, ranging from abusive workplace conditions to sexual assault and even rape. The tidal wave of accusations worried many, including Steve and I especially given our coverage of Ubisoft as a company with studios all across Canada, from Halifax to Montréal to Toronto to Winnipeg.

We both believe in supporting survivors and fighting for change, and we no longer felt comfortable giving space to a company that had so clearly demonstrated a total disregard for the wellbeing of their workers. Without saying anything publicly we stopped all our coverage of Ubisoft, stopped accepting codes for their new games and agreed we wouldn’t cover them again until we both felt comfortable the company has demonstrated they’ve changed their toxic workplace culture.

As we come to our game of the year voting, we decided we should say something given that we won’t be considering any of Ubisoft’s 2020 titles for any categories, and people would likely ask why.

Obviously, we can’t know for certain what allegedly happens at Ubisoft doesn’t happen at any other Canadian studio (unfortunately it probably does) but we don’t have the mountain of stories regarding high profile Ubisoft dev’s alleged abuses, assaults and rapes from another Canadian studio. As Ubisoft admitted themselves when they were nominated by the Canadian Game Awards for Studio of the Year, “We are grateful that the incredible talent of our teams is recognized, but in the actual circumstances, we cannot accept this nomination.”

A few months ago, Ubisoft’s own internal survey found that 1 in 5 Ubisoft devs “don't feel respected or safe at work” and we firmly believe nothing will change at this company until the leadership who let it get this bad is removed. This doesn’t seem likely to happen anytime soon as Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot appears to be entrenching his family’s position atop the corporate ladder. It was revealed he appointed his son Charlie Guillemot as Creative Director at the Owlient studio in Paris a few months after he graduated with a master’s degree in computer science and having no professional experience directing a game studio.

The corporate leaders who let it get this bad remain and while a few scapegoats have left their positions (with their stock options intact) there’s no reason for us to believe this company won’t let abuse continue to happen at their studios.

So we won’t be nominating them for any awards this year, as Steve and I both believe a studio with such rot at its leadership doesn’t deserve to be praised.

That said, we don’t want to put a damper on the monumental achievement that is shipping any game. We have many friends (and a few patrons) who work at Ubisoft studios across the country. There so many good people at this company who put in years of their lives shipping Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch_Dogs Legion and Fenyx Immortals Rising. Devs who’ve continued the work building new content for and growing the communities around Assassin’s Creed Rebellion and Rainbow Six Siege, and we don’t want to paint every Ubisoft employee with a broad stroke. This is very clearly a top-down issue.

Thanks for taking the time to read our explanation, if you want to ask us any questions we’re always available at contact@canadiangamedevs.com or feel free to reach out to us through Discord.

Stay safe,

Stephan Reilly & Stephen Crane