Summary
- Back in September, TheGamer shared a report on Brandoville Studios, a support team facing physical and psychological abuse.
- Those reports have resurfaced thanks to a video by People Make Games, which prompted a response from Ubisoft.
- Ubisoft said that it was “deeply disturbed” by the reports of what happened at Brandoville.
Ubisoft has released a statement saying that it’s “deeply disturbed” by reports of psychological and physical abuse at the now-defunct Brandoville Studios, which acted as a support team for Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
As the near-endless number of layoffs and studio closures made clear, 2024 was not the best year for the gaming industry. Among all of the band news, one of the most disturbing things to happen came out of Brandoville Studios, a support team that previously worked with a number of big publishers and developers such as Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, and Blizzard.
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Brandoville Studios Boss Accused Of “Psychologically And Physically” Abusing Employees
The now-defunct Brandoville Studios is once again under fire as an employee documents years worth of physical abuse, manipulation, and discrimination.
TheGamer reported back in September that the studio, which closed in August of 2024, had a history of workplace abuse, both physical and psychological. Most of the evidence alleged that studio CEO Ken Lai’s wife, Cherry Lai, engaged in abusive behaviour, ranging from swearing at staff to even assaulting one developer and leaving them with a concussion.
Ubisoft Responds To Brandoville Studios Abuse Reports
Brandoville Studios’ abusive history has come back into the limelight thanks to a video published by People Make Games titled “100 Slaps: The Breaking News The Games Industry Ignored in 2024“. The video details what happened at Brandoville and focuses on Cherry Lai’s treatment of the Brandoville’s developers, which can be quite a tough watch due to how horrific some of the stories get.
Now that Lai’s actions have resurfaced and been reported on once more, Ubisoft has issued a statement in response to the story. As reported by Eurogamer, a spokesperson for Ubisoft said that the claims of abuse have “deeply disturbed” the publisher, who condemns “all forms of abuse”. Ubisoft ended its statement by saying that its thoughts are with all the effected employees.
We are deeply disturbed by the recent reports surrounding Brandoville Studios. We strongly condemn all forms of abuse, and our thoughts are with the affected employees. – Ubisoft
While it’s good to see Ubisoft openly condemn the actions of Cherry Lai at Brandoville Studios, the story sadly hasn’t quite ended there. Although the original team was shut down in August, Ken and Cherry Lai have gone on to form a new studio, Lailai Studios. At the time of our report back in September, the Lailai could not be contacted for comment due to its website and social media pages being taken offline.
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