> Thomas François, 52, a former Ubisoft editorial vice-president, was found guilty of sexual harassment.
> Serge Hascoët, 59, Ubisoft’s former chief creative officer and second-in-command, was found guilty of psychological harassment and complicity in sexual harassment.
> The former Ubisoft game director, Guillaume Patrux, 41, was found guilty of psychological harassment
As someone who lives in the US, I was surprised to hear they’re facing jail time for this. In the cases I’ve heard, the company itself is sued and just has to pay damages to the victim. But I think it makes a lot of sense to hold the leaders of a company accountable for the culture they create and they should face jail time. I wonder why our laws don’t do that in the US.
> The court heard that Hascoët bullied assistants by making them carry out personal tasks for him such as going to his home to wait for parcel deliveries.
Er, that's bullying??
> The former Ubisoft game director, Guillaume Patrux, 41, was found guilty of psychological harassment and given a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine of €10,000.
Yes, abusing your position of power to use professional assistants as personal maids is bullying. Maybe that was okay in the 90s, but no, that's 100% not appropriate.
Also, I'm sure the psychological harassment isn't to the walls, but rather punching walls is a form of manipulation to intimidate people around you.
Making what up? This comment doesn't make any sense. Being an assistant is a job at a place of employment. It doesn't involve doing highly personal tasks that you would expect a maid, or more likely, yourself, to do.
It's one thing to ask one of your employees to go to the break room and make a cup of coffee for you. It's another to ask them to go to your literal house and do common household chores. That's very obviously not appropriate and it's kind of mind blowing I have to spell this out.
A headline that should've happened for Sun Microsystems back in the day but never did. Mind-boggling abuse 2-4 decades ago never made headlines and was swept under the rug of history.
The article talks about behavior like binding a woman to a chair, putting her in an elevator and sending her on trips to random floors. how is that kind of behavior necessary to make a video game?
> but perhaps cultural fit is more important in companies that want to capture this vibe, and when you grow into a corporation, you need to let [team of wild and rebellious dudes horsing around] go.
Yes... but no...
From the article :
> At a 2015 office Christmas party with a Back to the Future theme, François allegedly told a member of staff that he liked her 1950s dress. He then allegedly stepped towards her to kiss her on the mouth as his colleagues restrained her by the arms and back. She shouted and broke free.
Every team and sub culture will have an "energy" and different attitude etc... sure
But this is much more than racy poster on the walls... This behavior was never acceptable.
I find it fascinating that we have to rediscover and relearn every generation why professional etiquette is so important. And what happens when. We blur the line between professional life and "familial" attitudes
This is a really badly written headline and should read "Three Ubisoft chiefs found guilty of sexual harassment and abuse".
Read the article! This isn't boys being boys- it's actual abuse.
The verdicts:
> Thomas François, 52, a former Ubisoft editorial vice-president, was found guilty of sexual harassment.
> Serge Hascoët, 59, Ubisoft’s former chief creative officer and second-in-command, was found guilty of psychological harassment and complicity in sexual harassment.
> The former Ubisoft game director, Guillaume Patrux, 41, was found guilty of psychological harassment
Only one of them was found guilty of sexual harassment. If you're going to pull out the read the article bit... you know...
Pure misinformation. The article reports none guilty of sexual abuse.
As someone who lives in the US, I was surprised to hear they’re facing jail time for this. In the cases I’ve heard, the company itself is sued and just has to pay damages to the victim. But I think it makes a lot of sense to hold the leaders of a company accountable for the culture they create and they should face jail time. I wonder why our laws don’t do that in the US.
> The court heard that Hascoët bullied assistants by making them carry out personal tasks for him such as going to his home to wait for parcel deliveries.
Er, that's bullying??
> The former Ubisoft game director, Guillaume Patrux, 41, was found guilty of psychological harassment and given a 12-month suspended sentence and a fine of €10,000.
>
> The court heard he had punched walls
Psychological harrassment of walls. Good grief.
Yes, abusing your position of power to use professional assistants as personal maids is bullying. Maybe that was okay in the 90s, but no, that's 100% not appropriate.
Also, I'm sure the psychological harassment isn't to the walls, but rather punching walls is a form of manipulation to intimidate people around you.
> abusing your position of power to use professional assistants as personal maids is bullying.
"professional assistants"? "personal maids"? You're making this up.
Making what up? This comment doesn't make any sense. Being an assistant is a job at a place of employment. It doesn't involve doing highly personal tasks that you would expect a maid, or more likely, yourself, to do.
It's one thing to ask one of your employees to go to the break room and make a cup of coffee for you. It's another to ask them to go to your literal house and do common household chores. That's very obviously not appropriate and it's kind of mind blowing I have to spell this out.
Punching walls is a sign someone has anger issues.
Anger issues is not harrassment.
A headline that should've happened for Sun Microsystems back in the day but never did. Mind-boggling abuse 2-4 decades ago never made headlines and was swept under the rug of history.
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The article talks about behavior like binding a woman to a chair, putting her in an elevator and sending her on trips to random floors. how is that kind of behavior necessary to make a video game?
That's exactly what he's saying?
>Not saying that harassment is OK [...]
> but perhaps cultural fit is more important in companies that want to capture this vibe, and when you grow into a corporation, you need to let [team of wild and rebellious dudes horsing around] go.
Yes... but no... From the article : > At a 2015 office Christmas party with a Back to the Future theme, François allegedly told a member of staff that he liked her 1950s dress. He then allegedly stepped towards her to kiss her on the mouth as his colleagues restrained her by the arms and back. She shouted and broke free.
Every team and sub culture will have an "energy" and different attitude etc... sure
But this is much more than racy poster on the walls... This behavior was never acceptable. I find it fascinating that we have to rediscover and relearn every generation why professional etiquette is so important. And what happens when. We blur the line between professional life and "familial" attitudes
Well not saying violence is ok \s. BUT every man that does such thing deserves a solid beating.
Ubisoft is currently going broke because people hate the joyless, passionless formulaic gamedesign process.
I wish there was a clear way to filter these "professionals " out of creation platforms like fiver where they try to censor artistic expressions .
> Ubisoft is currently going broke because people hate the joyless, passionless formulaic gamedesign process.
Source? Juicy if true.
A brief Kagi search returns at least 10 different sources for that claim. Here’s one: https://tech4gamers.com/ubisoft-bankruptcy-in-2025/
What does this have to do with the post? “NOT saying that harrasment is OK” what does this mean?
This is unacceptable on every level and doesn’t have anything to do with games