"DEI only improved things" at Ubisoft, says former employee "stunned" at "misinformation" claiming diversity, equity, and inclusion to blame for Assassin's Creed studio's drop in share prices

One former Ubisoft employee says he's "stunned that there are still people spreading misinformation" such as "DEI is the reason why Ubisoft's stock price fell," stating that "DEI only improved things" at the company.

Last week, Ubisoft share prices plummeted significantly (thanks, Reuters) after the company announced a "major reset," including the cancellation of six games and the delay of seven others. As reported by Automaton (and translated by GamesRadar+), Kensuke Shimoda – a former game designer at Ubisoft Osaka – recently took to Twitter to share his thoughts, denying that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives have had any negative impact on Ubisoft and its share prices.

"Without quoting anyone I'm stunned that there are still people spreading misinformation like 'DEI is the reason why Ubisoft's stock price fell,'" he begins, before saying that "as a former employee I would like to make clear" that so-called "internal DEI advocates didn't have much influence."

Furthermore, he continues, "DEI only improved things (better workplace environment, expanding into South American and Middle Eastern markets etc)."

That's not to say he doesn't think the company is facing issues. "The decline in marketing/creativity, the cause is 'Big Business Syndrome' and it can happen to any company," he continues. Explaining this, he says an example is "not much upward progression so there obviously aren't enough people with online/mobile/F2P experience in senior leadership positions.

"In addition to everything above, we're talking about a company that's first language is French, that went global, and built offices outside of the French-speaking world, which has led to management issues specific to 'non-English speaking global companies.'"

In fact, he thinks that if Ubisoft decided to shift blame to "DEI advocates," it'd be bad news for the company. "If Ubisoft ignores all of the issues outlined above, and uses DEI advocates as scapegoats, then I expect this time it'd be over for them."

This is a stance that Shimoda has held for some time, having tweeted last May to say that while some people think "'Ubisoft is one of those so-called developers that is leaning into so-called DEI,'" in reality, "this isn't true."

As highlighted in Shimoda's most recent tweet, there's also often a discrepancy between actual DEI initiatives and what some label as DEI when it comes to discussion around games (often those with Black or female leads, as well as those with LGBTQ+ characters). Per his own description, you really can't go wrong with a "better workplace environment," and it's easy to see why he says blaming those things would be a bad thing for the company (not to mention the people working for it) going forward.

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