Ubisoft public relations director Stone Chin was terminated last week by the company due to misconduct allegations.
Chin’s termination comes on the heels of a series of firings based on allegations of sexual harassment, which appear to be in response to the reportedly misogynist culture at Ubisoft.
“My employer told me that the reason for my termination was its conclusion that I have failed to uphold the company’s code of conduct over the course of my career at the company,” Chin stated on TwitLonger. He elaborated that his termination was not due to sexual harassment allegations but a passive-aggressive management style, tendency to give co-workers a cold shoulder, and two instances in which he purposefully ignored co-workers who had denied his request to go on a date.
Chin denied a sexual assault allegation someone filed against him in 2012, which Ubisoft investigated and never reported to Chin that he “committed any wrongdoing.”
Even so, Chin said he accepts full responsibility for his shortcomings as a PR manager at Ubisoft and sees that his “actions as a manager over the years while at the company have hurt people.” He apologized for any distress he has caused people over the years. He also said he now recognizes gender disparity in the gaming industry, saying he was unaware of the “nuanced struggles women face every day.”
Although Chin’s termination seems to have a fairly broad basis in his managerial style and social interactions, it comes after Ubisoft’s consultation with experts on dealing with harassment allegations. Since then, Ubisoft’s chief creative officer has stepped down and the company has replaced the head of its Montreal Studio amid misconduct allegations.
The issue of sexual harassment and general misconduct extends beyond Ubisoft, as Chin points out. Twitch recently faced a reckoning, as multiple female streamers voiced their concerns over sexual harassment on the streaming platform, and part of the competitive Super Smash Bros. community have either committed or been victim of instances of sexual harassment.
While Ubisoft is attempting to address this issue by weeding out employees it deems as propagators of harassment, it’s unclear if this will help solve the core issue, though it does offer hope in companies’ growing recognition of the problem.
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