If you ask certain corners of the internet, most of Ubisoft’s problems stem from so-called “DEI” initiatives – meaning that they practice inclusion, and that their stories at times are centered around minority characters, such as Yasuke, who acts as a classic “outsider” in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. That particular case, and several others, have created a toxic discourse online, which Ubisoft themselves have commented on multiple times.
While it is difficult to asses if there’s any one particular reason the company finds itself in troubled waters, a former Ubisoft employee from the studio in Osaka has a somewhat different take, and pushes back against the idea that these initiatives are at the root of the problems. Instead, the individual says that the issues stem from what they call “Big Business Syndrome”:
“The decline in marketing/creative departments stemmed from Big Business Syndrome – something that can happen to any large company- One example of this was the excessively low turnover rate, leading to a clear lack of senior/lead-level staff with experience developing online/mobile/F2P games. Additionally, as a French-first company establishing branches outside French-speaking regions to build a global development structure, they faced management issues unique to non-English global corporations.”
These issues may be unique to Ubisoft’s Osaka operation, and are of course just one person’s perspective, but there are indications that Ubisoft’s problems are very systematic in nature.
AloJapan.com