Christophe Derennes named head of Ubisoft Montreal after Yannis Mallat's resignation

Ubisoft has placed Christophe Derennes at the head of Ubisoft Montreal after its previous head, Ubisoft Canada CEO Yannis Mallat, resigned. Derennes, himself a longtime Ubisoft veteran, previously served as the executive vice president of production for Ubi Montreal and has been with the company for 23 years.

The announcement comes mere days after Mallat resigned from both the position and, seemingly, Ubisoft as a whole over accusations of sexual misconduct and abuse of power made against several employees at studios he led.

According to a statement issued over the weekend: "The recent allegations that have come to light in Canada against multiple employees make it impossible for [Mallat] to continue in this position.”

Filling that vacant seat with someone who has already been in a position of power at the company is an interesting choice given that Ubisoft itself has been accused of setting up its company culture in a way that facilitated the many incidents of misconduct that came to light over the past weeks.

Ubisoft has, in a email shared earlier in the month under the subject line ‘change starts today’, promised to take steps to be improve, though it very visibly kept any mention of misconduct or its steps to address necessary changes out of the Ubisoft Forward game showcase that took place during the same weekend as its recent exec departures. In a separate statement on that omission, Ubisoft said the subject wouldn’t be addressed in the presentation because the content of the show had already been pre-recorded.