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The trial of three former top executives from French video game giant Ubisoft – the maker of games like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry – took place this week in Bobigny, France.
Serge Hascoët, Thomas François and Guillaume Patrux appeared before the Bobigny criminal court on charges of psychological abuse, sexual harassment and attempted sexual assault.
The prosecutor called for suspended prison sentences of up to three years and fines for all three, describing the accusations as “extremely serious”.
The public prosecutor’s office requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €45,000 fine against the company’s former No. 2, Serge Hascoët; one year’s imprisonment and a €10,000 fine against game designer Guillaume Patrux; and a suspended sentence of three years in prison as well as a €30,000 fine against the former vice-president of the editorial department, Thomas François.
The verdict is expected on 2 July.
The trial, seen as a landmark #MeToo moment in the male-dominated video game publishing industry, followed the publication of an in-depth investigation by Libération and Numerama in 2020. It highlighted working conditions plagued by harassment, humiliation and discriminatory comments, as well as the psychological, sexist and sexual harassment that had been going on at Ubisoft for around ten years.
The testimonies that poured in painted a damning picture of what went on behind the walls of the Ubisoft studios.
When François was questioned about a sexual assault that a former colleague had accused him of committing, and for which she had testified on the stand the previous day, he replied that he had “no recollection.”
The three defendants pleaded amnesia and their denial was roundly rebutted by the civil parties’ lawyers. According to them, the trial was really about the “extremely virile and childish culture” at Ubisoft, the French flagship of an “industry built by men and for men.”
The civil parties and the defence also deplored the fact that no proceedings have been brought against the legal entity Ubisoft, its CEO Yves Guillemot and Marie Derain, the head of human resources.
“This trial could have been exemplary,” according to Marc Rutschlé, union delegate at Solidaires Informatique. He told L’Humanité: “It wasn’t three isolated individuals who created this atmosphere of widespread harassment. Their impunity was organised. There are no defendants and many victims. The whole structural aspect has been evacuated.”
Previously, Guillemot allegedly referred to some of the accusations as “generational differences of opinion” and “creative friction”.
Additional sources • Libération, L’Humanité
