The Gaming Industry Has Its Own #MeToo Movement

Image: Ubisoft

The Gaming Industry has its own #MeToo movement. Reports and allegations against men in gaming have become more prevalent over the last two weeks. While this type of harassment,  misconduct, and twisted culture is not news for many in various industries, including the comics industry, a perfect storm of facts have emerged. The leading gaming site, Kotaku, part of G/O Media, is leading the investigation into some of these claims. Amid all these allegations, one company is right in the thick of the firestorm: Ubisoft.

“The past two weeks have been filled with accounts, some anonymous, some with names attached, as people, mostly women, take the risk of speaking out on social media about harassment, abuse, and assault, mostly against men in gaming. And while abuse allegations have rocked Twitch and other corners of the gaming world, no one company has seen as many reports leveled by and against its own people as Ubisoft, the multinational video game publisher behind Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six Siege.

In an interview with Kotaku, the woman who says one of Ubisoft’s co-founders, Maxime Béland, “jokingly” put his hands around her neck at a party shared not just an account of a disturbing incident but of a structure and culture that she said made her hesitate to report it. “You’re conditioned to feel like you’re lucky to be there,” she said of her time at Ubisoft”… continue reading article, here.