It’s been nearly two months since Ashraf Ismail stepped away from his role as creative director for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla amidst reports of rampant infidelity made worse by lying to his sexual partners about his marital status. The scandal touched off a reckoning for Ubisoft where current and former employees accused the French publisher of having a toxic work culture that both stifled and abused women both inside and outside of the company.
The reverberations of that scandal are still ongoing. Ubisoft announced a sweeping internal investigation into all reports of sexual harassment that has already claimed multiple executive-level employees. Now, we can add Ismail’s name to the list.
According to an internal memo obtained by Kotaku, Ismail has been fired from Ubisoft.
“Following an investigation by an external firm, it was determined that Ashraf’s employment with Ubisoft had to be terminated,” the email read. “We cannot provide any details about this confidential investigation.”
Ubisoft has yet to respond to requests for comment.
The difficulties for Ubisoft and Ismail began in late June when a Twitter post detailed the Valhalla creative director’s infidelity.
“This person is married,” wrote Dani Porter Bridges, a former partner who took to Twitter to warn other women of Ismail’s behavior. “When he starts a relationship with you, know he’s married. This is why he doesn’t want to talk on the phone or facetime or have things sent to his home. His marriage has been confirmed by 3 people. I was with him for a year on and off before finding out.”
After that, other women and even some co-workers came forward to confirm her story. The scandal grew and Ismail stepped away from the game he’d help create.
But it didn’t stop there. Ubisoft soon became embroiled in controversy as top-level executives were accused of misconduct and the company’s HR was accused of trying to cover it up. This resulted in the departures of Chief Creative Officer Serge Hascoët, Ubisoft Canada Director Yannis Mallat, Global Head of HR Cécile Cornet, and Editorial Board member Maxime Béland, which was soon followed by the firing of fellow board member Tommy Francois.
Ubisoft’s sexism isn’t just related limited to internal employee matters. Recent allegations have accused Ubisoft of adding a male option to Valhalla’s canonically female protagonist, Eivor, although Valhalla’s narrative director denies this to be the case.
Source: Kotaku
