Fired Assassin's Creed Valhalla Creative Director Now Working at Tencent

gamerant.com:

Following an investigation into extramarital allegations, Ubisoft fired Ashraf Ismail in 2020. This followed Ismail taking a «leave of absence» after allegations that he had an extramarital affair with a fan he met at E3 2017 surfaced online.

Ismail was a creative director at Ubisoft, who worked on Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag and Assassin's Creed Origins. He joined Assassin's Creed Valhalla's team as its creative director in May 2020 before allegations surfaced online in June 2020. Ashraf cited personal issues impacting his family and stepped down from the project, before being officially fired in August 2020. Ubisoft's investigation was never made public, but Ismail was accused of abusing his power and lying about his marital status to conduct affairs with female fans and possibly even Ubisoft employees. Now, a new report from Axios reveals that Ismail has remained active in the gaming world, since roughly July 2021, not even a full year after his ousting.

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Multiple sources told Axios that Ashraf Ismail was working at Tencent, with it being revealed that he was a «consulting creative director» with Tencent's TiMi studio group. Tencent opened a new studio in Montreal, a central hub for several game developers, in July 2021, and it is said that Ismail has been at the studio since it opened. This studio is staffed by several former developers of Ubisoft Montreal, some of whom worked on Assassin's Creed games under Ismail.

Ismail did not respond to Axios' request for comment, but Tencent did issue a statement to the publication. «During our work with Ash, he has carried himself in a professional manner and has consistently shown an eagerness to learn and grow as both a team member and person...We