"We want to highlight that this executive hire comes without insight on Yves' promise to redefine the leadership of the editorial department and avoid having a singular creative officer."
Ubisoft has appointed company veteran Igor Manceau as its new chief creative officer. The news comes over a year after the resignation of former CCO Serge Hascoët, who departed in July 2020 in the wake of serious misconduct allegations.
Manceau has worked as Ubisoft since 1998, and initially joined the company as part of the business marketing team. Over the years, Manceau rose through the ranks, taking charge of the editorial marketing team at Ubisoft Montreal in 2003 before going on to serve as a creative consultant on many of the French publisher's key franchises, including Assassin's Creed.
Since 2017, Manceau has overseen Riders Republic as creative director, but will now work to "expand the breath of Ubisoft's portfolio of games" as its new CCO.
“It is a real honor for me to lead and support the passionate and incredibly talented group of people responsible for the creative direction of Ubisoft’s games,” said Manceau. "We have some of the best creative minds in the industry at Ubisoft, and I’m looking forward to partnering with them to increase our games’ focus on innovation, quality and differentiation."
The appointment comes roughly a year after Ubisoft was hit by a number of serious misconduct allegations that resulted in a spate of high-profile departures. Company CEO and co-founder Yves Guillemot pledged to root out abusers following the outpouring of allegations, but many current and former employees feel the company has yet to take meaningful action.
Commenting on the executive hire, ABetterUbisoft, the pro-worker group behind the recent open letter to Ubisoft management, told Game Developer that while they look forward to working with Manceau to forge a brighter future, they are concerned about a lack of transparency surrounding the appointment.
"We can only trust that his application and appointment were done so under intense scrutiny due to the actions of his predecessor. However, those actions need to be addressed and we hope to see Igor taking meaningful steps to repair the damage done by his predecessor," they commented.
"We also want to highlight that this executive hire comes without insight on Yves' promise to redefine the leadership of the editorial department and avoid having a singular creative officer."
The group added that there is currently a "shocking lack of diversity" among the VPs at Ubisoft, and said the company hasn't made much progress in terms of promoting and hiring diverse talent. They also allege that one editorial VP has been allowed to keep their job despite "multiple misconduct reports" against them, and claim that Serge Hascoet's former "right-hand person" is still involved with high-level recruitment.
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