offices of Ubisoft Montpellier It was recently evacuated in response to a bomb threat. While no one was injured, the threat has raised questions and possibly shaken Ubisoft employees.
This kind of scary moment is something that has unfortunately happened frequently in the gaming industry at another Ubisoft location in the past. Back in 2020, a similar scenario emerged when reports surfaced of a hostage situation at Ubisoft Montreal. That incident turned out to be false, but it obviously created a lot of fear and tension.
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Ubisoft Montpellier tackles the bomb scare
Now it is reported that on February 19 in France, Ubisoft Montpellier, known for developing such games. RamonHad to evacuate due to bomb threat. An email was sent to state police that claimed an explosive device was located in or near the building, prompting law enforcement to rush to the scene and create a security perimeter. About 500 employees of the Ubisoft offices were evacuated, as well as several hundred people from nearby buildings. Bomb experts and firefighters combed through the Ubisoft offices, but were unable to find the explosives.
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Since then, Ubisoft employees have returned to the Montpellier studio, according to a spokesperson who spoke to GameSpot. It's unclear if the hoaxer could still pose a threat to the building, or if it was essentially a swatting prank, in which a false crime-in-progress is reported to the police to show the location of the suspected victim. People working in Ubisoft Montpellier and surrounding buildings were terrified by the danger, but thankfully, no one was hurt.
Unfortunately, this sort of thing has become all too common in the games industry. Big names like Nintendo, Capcom, Insomniac Games have all faced threats made to studios or individual developers working for them, leading to cancellations of game events and fraying nerves. With the relative anonymity of the Internet, some have become adept at threatening games when things don't work out the way they want. For example, actress Laura Bailey received death threats for angering her character Abby. The Last of Us Part 2While studios and developers have received threats for everything from not putting out updates quickly enough to people threatening games to not being “good enough”.
In some cases, studios have threatened legal action against bullies, while others have seen suspects brought to justice. In the case of Ubisoft, the accused was sentenced to three years of community service and mandatory mental health care as a result of the hoax hostage scenario in Ubisoft Montreal. In another case, Nintendo was finally arrested after being forced to cancel a live event in 2024 to protect its employees and attendees from potential threats.
Gamers are not immune to this kind of thing either, especially for streamers who are sweating it out more often. These incidents have seen streamers suddenly interrupted by policemen storming their homes or offices, causing some streamers to develop PTSD. In worst-case scenarios, a swatting incident results in the victim being killed by law enforcement. In one such case, the victim was not remotely involved in the initial incident and lost his life due to sweating. In that case, an arrest was made, and the perpetrator was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
For now, it remains to be seen if the police will be able to track down the person who made the bomb threat.
Source: MIDI Libre
