"Three Ubisoft chiefs found guilty of enabling culture of sexual harassment", 2 July 2025

Three former executives at the video game company Ubisoft have been given suspended prison sentences for enabling a culture of sexual and psychological harassment in the workplace at the end of the first big trial to stem from the #MeToo movement in the gaming industry.

The court in Bobigny, north of Paris, had heard how the former executives used their position to bully or sexually harass staff, leaving women terrified and feeling like pieces of meat.

Former staff had said that between 2012 and 2020, the company’s offices in Montreuil, east of Paris, were run with a toxic culture of bullying and sexism that one worker likened to a “boys’ club above the law”...

The state prosecutor, Antoine Haushalter, had told the court the world of video games and its subculture had an element of “systemic” sexism and potential abuse and called the trial a “turning point” for the gaming world.

Thomas François... a former Ubisoft editorial vice-president, was found guilty of sexual harassment, psychological harassment and an attempted sexual assault...

Serge Hascoët... Ubisoft’s former chief creative officer and second-in-command, was found guilty of psychological harassment and complicity in sexual harassment...

Hascoët had told the court he was unaware of any harassment, saying: “I have never wanted to harass anyone and I don’t think I have.”...

The former Ubisoft game director, Guillaume Patrux ... was found guilty of psychological harassment... He had denied the charges.