Yves Guillemot explains to staff what he meant by saying “the ball is in your court.”
As reported by Kotaku, Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot apologized to the company staff in yesterday’s Q&A session after facing tough comments questioning his performance in the company. Guillemot also came under fire for making the developers responsible for the company’s future.
“I heard your feedback and I’m sorry this was perceived that way,” said Guillemot after an upvoted question in a recent Q&A session criticized his tone and comments in the last week’s internal email to staff. “When saying ‘the ball is in your court’ to deliver our lineup on time and at the expected level of quality, I wanted to convey the idea that more than ever I need your talent and energy to make it happen. This is a collective journey that starts of course with myself and with the leadership team to create the conditions for all of us to succeed together.”
Last week, Ubisoft held an emergency investors call, during which Yves Guillemot revealed a huge loss in the fiscal year ending in March 2023, confirming the cancelation of three unannounced projects, and delaying Skull & Bones once more.
Following these disappointing announcements, Guillemot wrote an email to the company staff, asking them to remain committed to their jobs and be careful about their spending. Later in the email, Ubisoft’s CEO mildly blamed developers by saying that “the ball is in your court to deliver this line-up on time and at the expected level of quality, and show everyone what we are capable of achieving.” Following this comment, some Ubisoft Paris employees shared a list of new demands and called for a strike on January 27.
During yesterday’s session, one of the questions sent in advance through corporate communication channels accused Guillemot of mishandling the situation. “The ball is now in our court—for years it has been in your court so why did you mishandle the ball so badly so we, the workers, have to fix it for you?” reads the question.
Ubisoft has shown extreme interest in free-to-play multiplayer games in recent years, but the company has not been successful with almost any of its new projects. The French publisher canceled the free-to-play Battle Royale game Ghost Recon: Frontline a few months after its limited testing phase. Also, the Battle Arena title known as Project Q, which was confirmed back in 2022, is also said to be among the recently canceled projects.
Despite these cancelations, Ubisoft still has Beyond Good & Evil 2 in the pipeline, despite its long development process and no proper release window.
