Ubisoft CEO sparks controversy by saying that making games requires 'friction'
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has sparked controversy by saying that «you need a little friction» to make videogames, a remark that's caused backlash because of the company's well-known problems with toxicity and abusiveness in the workplace.
«Creating a videogame is not easy,» Guillemot said in a recent interview with La Presse(opens in new tab) (Google translated(opens in new tab)) in reply to a question about why workplace misconduct seems so widespread in the game industry. «There is a 'challenge,' from time to time a lot of tension. Techniques must be put in place to ensure that everyone succeeds in finding their place. To create, you need a little friction, because everyone has to succeed in getting their idea across. It's a job that brings a lot of rewards when you succeed, but it's difficult.»
It's a fairly innocuous statement about the nature of collaborative work, and not quite a direct quote because the interview is in French. Still, the «friction» comment immediately raised eyebrows because of Ubisoft's long and ugly history with workplace abuses. Those issues first came to widespread attention in mid-2020, and while some high-level managers were ousted(opens in new tab) in the immediate aftermath of those revelations, many employees have been critical of what they feel is an overly slow pace of meaningful change. In July, for instance, the employee group A Better Ubisoft(opens in new tab) shared an open letter saying that «we have seen nothing more than a year of kind words, empty promises, and an inability or unwillingness to remove known offenders.»
Guillemot pushed back on those claims in a GamesIndustry(opens in new tab) interview earlier this month, saying that «we have done a lot» to tackle abuses and
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