For well over a year now, Ubisoft has struggled with its perception as a sexist company, following a bombshell report that detailed its internal struggles with toxicity and sexism. Accusations of sexual harassment and misogynistic statements led to Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot promising internal reforms and an exodus of lead developers whose poor behavior was brought to light. Additionally, Guillemot's bonus metrics were changed to include incentives based on gender diversity at the company.
According to a new report from Axios, however, that's no longer the case. The gender diversity initiative will remain a metric for the three-year goals set last year, and they do have the possibility of being renewed in 2023. They won't affect Guillemot's new long-term bonus metrics for 2021, though, which will instead be primarily focused on reducing Ubisoft's carbon footprint.
The original goal was for Ubisoft to increase its percentage of woman employees from 22% at the end of March 2020 to 24% by the end of March 2023. Ubisoft says the increase represents a wider push for diversity, but the percentage of women employed by Ubisoft is the only form of diversity that is measurable worldwide. According to Ubisoft, women now represent 23.5% of the company's workforce.
Just weeks ago, Ubisoft again found itself embroiled in controversy as #HoldUbisoftAccountable trended on Twitter. The hashtag emerged following reports that Ubisoft had not made sufficient changes to its workplace culture, which has remained a point of contention since the initial report broke a year ago. For that reason, dropping the gender diversity initiative — temporarily or permanently — may end up being seen as a step backward by many in the community.
It's unclear what's next for Ubisoft's diversity push. Toxic workplace culture is difficult to uproot, requiring considerable effort to make any meaningful changes. While the last year has seen some top-level developers depart Ubisoft after stories of inappropriate behavior surfaced, it seems unlikely that things have changed enough in a year for it to no longer be a focus. The increase in women employed by Ubisoft is a trend in the right direction, though.
With E3 on the horizon, and Ubisoft's press conference coming along with it, the company may take time to address the changes that are being made, highlighting the positive outcomes of the initiatives that it has run thus far. Ubisoft's messaging needs to balance new game announcements while tackling the elephant in the room, and that's not going to be an easy thing to do.
Source: Axios