Several Ubisoft Quebec developers are reportedly refusing to work on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Red (or Codename Red) due to prior abuse allegations made against the game’s current director, Jonathan Dumont. An anonymous Ubisoft employee detailed the issues behind the scenes which continues to affect the working environment despite Dumont’s claims to “improve himself.”
Speaking to TheGamer recently, an anonymous worker from the A Better Ubisoft program revealed that many Ubisoft Quebec employees are reportedly refusing to work on Assassin’s Creed Red under Dumont’s lead. The source claims that Dumont was the reason for several employees leaving the company, with some of his alleged outbursts “creating a climate of fear.”
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“Dumont has been the reason [for] multiple of my colleagues leaving,” said the source. “Be it because of sexual advances, belittlement, fear of him, or having seen his behaviour when in a bad mood. His outbursts have created a climate of fear known for years in the studio and failed to be acted on for a long time.”
In 2020, Dumont was among many Ubisoft heads accused of verbally abusing employees and making unwanted sexual advances to female workers and newcomers at the company. This has seemingly not been addressed internally since then. As such, “some in the Quebec studio have asked not to work on Red because of his position on the project.”
At the recent Ubisoft Forward event, Dumont was named the project lead on the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Codename Red, a long-requested entry in the series that will finally be set in Japan. Codename Red will be one of the many future Assassin’s Creed titles to fall under the new franchise-encompassing hub, Assassin’s Creed Infinity, which currently doesn’t have a release date.
As with all reports, take this with a pinch of salt. However, the source’s claims seem to align with previous scathing allegations made against Dumont and many Ubisoft leads before.
Source: TheGamer
