In its bid for meaningful change in Ubisoft‘s working culture following allegations of sexual misconduct last year, which saw the departure of several senior executives, the company has appointed a new chief creative officer.
Igor Manceau, the creative director of Riders Republic who has been at Ubisoft for over two decades, takes over the Chief Creative Officer role, which had been temporarily filled by Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot after previous CCO Serge Hascoët left last July.
However, as reported in PC Gamer, a pressure group consisting of current and former Ubisoft employees called ABetterUbisoft were not entirely satisfied with the appointment, expressing “a lack of confidence” in the future shape of the editorial team.
We have the following statement in response to the appointment of Igor Manceau as CCO of Ubisoft.#EndAbuseInGaming #ABetterUbisoft pic.twitter.com/J1dnVzpMWT
— ABetterUbisoft (@ABetterUbisoft) September 7, 2021
In a statement posted on Twitter, the group said it looked forward to working with Manceau and hoped that he will be taking “meaningful steps to repair the damage done by his predecessor”. However, they were less pleased with how this appointment has come “without insight on Yves [Guillemot]’s promise to redefine the leadership of the editorial department and avoid having a singular creative officer.”
While the group acknowledges the hiring of Bio Jade Adam Granger, who was appointed VP of the editorial team earlier this year, it added that there is still a “shocking lack” of diverse hires in these senior-level positions, noting that Ubisoft’s creative is still currently “composed of white people who are of uniform cultural backgrounds”.
A press release issued yesterday (September 7) by Ubisoft stated that the selection committee for the CCO role, which included Guillemot and an executive recruitment firm, noted Manceau’s “track record of guiding creative direction for diverse game types” and “capacity to devise concepts that appeal to social players and new audiences” as reasons for his appointment.
Meanwhile, Activision Blizzard continues to make changes to address allegations of widespread sexual harassment, as Blizzard will be removing juvenile sex jokes from World Of Warcraft in an upcoming update.
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