A new report has emerged that suggests several ex-Ubisoft executives have been questioned by police over sexual harassment claims.
According to the French union Solidaires Informatique, the executives were "taken into custody and questioned by police" earlier this week.
This was done as part of the "investigation into [Ubisoft's] systemic sexual harassment", the union goes on to say.
In addition, French paper Libération (via GamesIndustry.biz) reported earlier today that the executives had been arrested, and that they counted former CCO Serge Hascoët and ex-editorial VP Tommy François among their number.
Maude Beckers, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in the Ubisoft sexual harassment case, says the case "reveals systemic sexual violence" and goes beyond the individual behavior of anyone involved.
This saga began back in 2020, when several claims of sexual harassment and toxic workplace behavior emerged against major Ubisoft executives.
Following this, the aforementioned union Solidaires Informatique announced it would pursue legal action against the publisher over these allegations.
Around a year after these allegations first emerged, French publication Le Télégramme reported that Ubisoft's work culture hadn't changed much in response to the allegations or the ensuing scandal.
Not long afterwards, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot shared some of the ways in which he believed the working culture at his studio had shifted over the preceding year.
Despite Guillemot's comments, employees subsequently accused the company's management of trying to avoid the issues it was facing, with more employees suggesting later in the year that little was being done to address the studio's harassment culture.
In July last year, worker collective A Better Ubisoft claimed that the company still wasn't doing much to address its systemic harassment issues.
Ubisoft responded in September by detailing some of the initiatives it was taking to combat harassment and toxicity, but employees seemed pessimistic regarding whether or not these changes would actually make a difference.
It's worth noting that the executives who were allegedly questioned by police this week are apparently former executives and not current employees of the company.
In addition, the studio itself has, of course, not made any official announcement regarding this development.
We reached out to Ubisoft for comment on this story, and a spokesperson told us the following: "Ubisoft has no knowledge of what has been shared and therefore can't comment."
Stay tuned for more on this.
