Over the weekend, the creative director of Assassin’s Creed came to the fore after having an extramarital affair.
Another controversy broke out in the gaming world this week when Ashraf Ismail resigned over allegations of misconduct. Over the weekend, the creative director of Assassin’s Creed came to the fore after having an extramarital affair.
This is just the latest in a long list of allegations of misconduct, harassment and abuse in the gaming industry.
Ismail has been working with Ubisoft for many years on several iterations of the video game Assassin’s Creed. He served as creative director for both 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and 2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins. But his long career at the company ended this week.
Very general fallout
In an astonishing tweet this weekend, a woman claims she’s been watching Ismail for “a year and a half”. After discovering that he had a wife and two children, she confronted him with text. But he begged her to keep quiet. Furious, he posted screenshots of the conversation on Twitter. This tweet now has over a thousand likes and a few hundred retweets.
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The woman pointed out that Ismail was older than herself and that their relationship was power imbalanced.
Ismail has since deleted his Twitter account. However, he sent out one final post before deactivating the account. It is as follows:
“I am withdrawing from my beloved plan to deal with personal problems in my life. The life of my family and my own is ruined. I am very sorry for all those injured. “
For its part, Ubisoft has largely been able to resolve the controversy. In a statement, they diplomatically stated:
“the creative director of Assassin’s Creed Ashraf Ismail is planning to take a leave of absence. The development team is determined to give Assassin’s Creed a better game.
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An industry with scandals is ugly
The gaming industry is already facing allegations of misconduct, particularly concerning discrimination. The most popular riot game in the making of League of Legends is currently being sued by gender discrimination. Female employees have accused the company of paying higher salaries to male workers.
The California Fair Employment and Housing Department now say it could end up paying $400 million to female employees.
As for Ubisoft, it takes all the allegations of misconduct seriously. “We are very concerned by these allegations,” the company said in a statement. “We take any allegations of abuse or harassment very seriously and we are closely watching the allegations to determine the next step.”
