A screenshot from Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft

Legal analyst Andrew Esquire declared that French video game company Ubisoft is breaking the law over its mentorship program that excludes men.

A screenshot of Skull and Bones (2024), Ubisoft

On the official Ubisoft website, the company promotes its Develop at Ubisoft program stating, “At Ubisoft, we want to build the most creative, diverse and inclusive teams, and that’s exactly what Develop at Ubisoft is all about: empowering and supporting under-represented genders.”

It then clearly states, “The program provides mentorship opportunities for women and non-binary individuals (students or fresh graduates with less than 2 years of experience), interested in video games to develop their skill set in Game Design and Programming. We want to empower you to learn, grow, and become the very best developer that you can be.”

Screenshot of Develop at Ubisoft mentorship program

In a section labeled “Eligibility Criteria,” the first bullet point states that “to be eligible you must: Identify as a woman or a non-binary individual.”

Screenshot of Eligibility Criteria for Develop at Ubisoft mentorship program

Esquire reacted to this mentorship program and its promotion on Ubisoft’s LinkedIn account during a recent livestream on his Legal Mindset YouTube channel, where he said, “This is illegal.”

He continued, “A special mentorship program. This is the same thing that Disney is currently being sued for.

Next, he brought up the post on Ubisoft’s website that also states, “With more people playing video games than ever before, it is important for us to help build an inclusive entertainment industry that reflects the diversity of our players.”

Esquire commented, “Really? Because if it reflects real players then it should be a bunch of straight men. Just saying that it should be by and large straight men. Not entirely, not wholly, mostly. And now, there’s diversity because some of them will be Asian. So there you go, right. But it would be a bunch of a f***ing dudes if you want it to match the player base.”

A screenshot from Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (2023), Massive Entertainment

After reading the eligibility requirements, he added, “This is not okay. And this is something they’re going to get in trouble for and they should by the way.”

Esquire later added, “So Ubisoft did something illegal. What I think is that somebody who is actually damaged by that, who is not picked for mentorship or leadership should bring a case. I think there’s law firms like the America First Legal team down in Texas that would be willing to take that. They’ve already taken the Disney case, why not take that one? Seems like it’d be a good case for them.”

A screenshot from Assassin’s Creed Shadows (2024), Ubisoft

What do you make of Esquire’s legal analysis regarding Ubisoft’s mentorship program?