Two senior Ubisoft executives, Tommy François and Maxime Béland, have reportedly been placed on administrative leave as the company commences an investigation into misconduct allegations.
At the time of writing, neither François nor Béland were available for comment, but a spokesperson for Ubisoft, Stephanie Magnier, told Bloomberg: “These are under investigation, so we are not commenting further at this time".
Both are part of Ubisoft's editorial team, a group of approximately 100 designers who have "overseen" the development of all of its contemporary titles, advising on numerous aspects of development, from visuals to narrative design.
The news comes just days after Ubisoft released a statement about apologising "to everyone affected by [the allegations]", promising it would "be sharing additional measures that we are putting in place with our teams in the coming days". Internal correspondence seen by Bloomberg reportedly told Ubisoft employees the company was “deeply concerned by these accusations”.
"We are truly sorry," the publisher/developer said. "We are dedicated to creating an inclusive and safe environment for our teams, players, and communities. It is clear we have fallen short of this in the past. We must do better."
"We have started by launching investigations into the allegations with the support of specialized external consultants," the statement continued. "Based on the outcomes, we are fully committed to taking any and all appropriate disciplinary action. As these investigations are ongoing, we can't comment further. We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behaviour."
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