Save for a short stint at Epic Games, Béland had worked for Ubisoft for 20 years. He worked on the original Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist and Far Cry 4, among other games.

A dozen current and former Ubisoft Toronto employees spoke with Kotaku, which published a detailed report about alleged misconduct at the studio today. They “described an overall workplace culture that undervalues women’s contributions, normalizes sexism and harassment, and makes excuses for the worst offenders while complaints about them go unheeded.” At one point, Béland’s wife Rima Brek was reportedly the studio’s interim head of HR, and the department had a “reputation for being unhelpful at best,” according to Kotaku.

Last week, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot published a letter to employees that detailed a plan to overhaul the company’s culture. As well as investigations into reports of misconduct, Ubisoft has introduced a way to report “harassment, discrimination and other inappropriate behaviors” in confidence. In addition, Ubisoft will revamp the Editorial Group (which until recently consisted entirely of white males), reassign an employee to oversee workplace culture and hire a head of diversity and inclusion.

Here’s the full statement Ubisoft provided to Engadget regarding Béland’s resignation:

“Maxime Beland, Vice President Editorial, has resigned from his role at Ubisoft, effective immediately. Despite his resignation, we continue to investigate the allegations made against him. Additionally, effective as of [Thursday], Tommy François, Vice President Editorial & Creative Services, has been placed on disciplinary leave pending the outcome of an investigation. One other individual in our Toronto studio has been terminated for engaging in behaviors that do not align with what is expected of Ubisoft employees. Other investigations are ongoing and will be conducted rigorously.
 
Ubisoft will not tolerate workplace misconduct and will continue taking disciplinary actions against anyone who engages in harassment, discrimination and other behaviors that infringe on our Code of Fair Conduct.”

A Twitter thread collecting many of the reports made both anonymously and publicly named many employees including those VPs and others, as well as stories from studios in Paris, Toronto and Montreal. They ranged from harassment and intimidation of women in the workplace, animal abuse, racism, assault and predatory behavior, as well as unwanted approaches followed by retaliation and blacklisting after a rejection.

Earlier in the week Assassin’s Creed creative director Ashraf Ismail announced he would take a leave of absence via a post to a now-deleted Twitter account, saying “I am stepping down from my beloved project to properly deal with the personal issues in my life.” Reports about Ismail centered on inappropriate behavior with fans of the games while misleading them about his marital status. Others named in reports included Dying Light 2 writer Chris Avellone, product and brand marketing manager Andrien Gbinigie, and Stone Chin.

The company’s statement closed by saying “We are also auditing our existing policies, processes, and systems to understand where these have broken down, and to ensure we can better prevent, detect, and punish inappropriate behavior.”

“We will be sharing additional measures that we are putting in place with our teams in the coming days. Our goal is to foster an environment that our employees, partners, and communities can be proud of –one that reflects our values and that is safe for everyone.”