Three Ubisoft execs found guilty of enabling a culture of sexual harassment in landmark #MeToo trial

François, a former Ubisoft editorial vice president, was found guilty of sexual harassment, psychological harassment, and an attempted sexual assault. He was given a three-year suspended prison sentence and fined €30,000 (approximately $35,000). Over the course of the trial, former employees testified that he had once tied a female staff member to a chair using tape, pushed the chair into an elevator, and pushed a button at random. Other testimony claimed he had allegedly attempted to kiss a female staff member on the mouth at a Christmas party while other staff members held her arms. Yet another former employee alleged that he had forced her to do handstands while wearing a skirt. “He was my superior and I was afraid of him,” she said. “I did it to get it over with and get rid of him.”

In his defense, François reportedly told the court there was a “culture of joking around” and claimed he “never tried to harm anyone.”

The second employee, Hascoët, Ubisoft’s former chief creative officer, was found guilty of psychological harassment and complicity in sexual harassment. He received an 18-month suspended sentence and a fine of €45,000 ($53,000). “I have never wanted to harass anyone and I don’t think I have,” he said during the trial. 

Patrux, Ubisoft’s former game director, was found guilty of psychological harassment and given a 12-month suspended sentence along with a fine of €10,000 ($12,000). Over the course of the trial, the court reportedly heard that he had “punched walls, mimed hitting staff, cracked a whip near colleagues’ faces, threatened to carry out an office shooting and played with a cigarette lighter near workers’ faces, setting alight a man’s beard.” He also denied the charges.

Ubisoft is known for publishing popular games such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, and Just Dance. In a statement near the beginning of the trial, state prosecutor Antoine Haushalter hailed the case as a “turning point” for the “world of video games and its subculture,” which has always suffered from a “systemic” sexism problem, as The Guardian previously reported. “It’s not that these actions were not punished by the law before,” he added. “It’s just that they were silenced, and from now on they will not be silenced.”