The fallout from June’s games industry abuse and assault call-outs continues.
Let’s start with Method, the guild that’s been driving World of Warcraft’s competitive scene for years now. Last week we mentioned that Wowhead had terminated negotiations with Method following a new round of allegations against several of its members that include everything from preying on minors to sexual assault. So far, Method has booted one member and placed a co-CEO on leave while investigations take place. And Wowhead isn’t the only partner severing ties; apparently, the group has lost many core members and several key sponsors as well as earned a rebuke from Blizzard itself, which told PC Gamer it would “not be working with [Method] going forward.” In fact, PC Gamer all but calls Method dead in the water, which could have broader implications for WoW’s esports scene.
Meanwhile, both EA and Ubisoft are promising investigations of their own into the wave of abuse accusations that rolled out from staff over the last couple of weeks. Whether those investigations will have any teeth remains to be seen.
“We take every allegation seriously and we investigate it. We are deeply committed to ensuring there is safe space for people to come forward and taking the right actions on behalf of our community,” EA’s statement reads. “The stories we’ve heard recently make it clear there is still a lot of work to be done in our industry. If you are an EA employee and encounter or have encountered harassment, violence or other misconduct, please raise it immediately with your manager or People Experience leader. If you are not comfortable doing that you can report anonymously through our Raise a Concern program.”
And as for Ubisoft, eyebrows will go up over the company’s response, as Gamasutra’s digging into private company memos reveals that it’s planning a “multidisciplinary working group” in combination with an outside third-party; the group’s job will be finding “better solutions and tools to detect, report and resolve any incident or serious problem without delay and in an impartial manner.” Multiple high-ranking Ubisoft staffers have already been accused; it’s not clear whether the committee will be made public or for that matter compromised from the very start.
