Ubisoft names Igor Manceau its new chief creative officer

Ubisoft today named long-time employee Igor Manceau as its new chief creative officer.

Manceau has been with Ubisoft for more than two decades, joining the company in 1998 as part of the business marketing team. He has been at Ubisoft Annecy since 2014, where he was creative director first on Steep and then Riders Republic.

"Igor is one of the most experienced, innovative, and well-respected creative directors at Ubisoft and in the video game industry at large," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. "He has a deep understanding of players' motivations, a strong intuition for reaching new markets and an exemplary leadership style."

Ubisoft's last chief creative officer, Serge Hascoët, left the company over a year ago in the wake of numerous reports of sexual harassment and discrimination at the publisher, one of which named Hascoët as playing a central role in Ubisoft's cultural problems.

Ubisoft employee group A Better Ubisoft released a statement along with the appointment of Manceau, framing it as a failure on Guillemot's part to follow through on a promise to overhaul the way the company's Editorial Department works.

"There is no clear expression of the creative process, and there is a shocking lack of diversity in the VPs," A Better Ubisoft said. "We acknowledge the hiring of Bio-Jade Adam Granger, but not much progress has been made beyond that, especially given that two additional VPs were meant to be hired.

"Currently, as it stands, the creative team at Ubisoft is composed of white people who are of uniform cultural backgrounds. This leaves us with a lack of confidence in the future shape of the editorial team."