One has to imagine that the suits at Ubisoft were secretly delighted that Blizzard’s scandal this year took the public’s attention away from its own plague of mismanagement, racism, and sexual harassment. But you know who hasn’t forgotten? The employees, who are now attempting to apply pressure to the game studio by rallying public support for corporate change.
Employee group A Better Ubisoft said that the studio has not reformed in the past year nor met the group’s four key demands. So now the group has launched a petition that allows fans to express public support for change.
Ubisoft, on the other hand, announced that it was handing out pay raises to help stanch the ongoing loss of key talent that are fleeing to other studios and sectors. Lower-level employees are seeing a 5% to 7% raise in pay while management is being bumped up 20%.
Officially, Ubisoft says that this unexpected raise is due to the market changing in Canada, but a contemporary game developer has a different take, according to Kotaku: “They’re desperately trying to hold on to what few experienced devs are still here.”
A Better Ubisoft responded to the raise by saying that it “did nothing to address the key demands” of the group.
