The offices of Ubisoft Montpellier were recently evacuated in response to a bomb threat. While no one was injured, the threat has raised questions and likely left Ubisoft employees feeling shaken.
This kind of scary moment is something that has unfortunately happened repeatedly in the gaming industry, including at another Ubisoft location in the past. Back in 2020, a similar scenario occurred when reports came in of a hostage situation at Ubisoft Montreal. That incident turned out to be a hoax, but it obviously created a lot of fear and tension.
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Ubisoft Montpellier Faces Bomb Scare
It’s now been reported that on February 19 in France, Ubisoft Montpellier, known for developing games like Rayman, had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat. An email was sent to the state police claiming that an explosive device was located somewhere in or nearby the building, which led to law enforcement arriving on the scene and creating a security perimeter. Nearly 500 employees from the Ubisoft office were evacuated, as well as several hundred more from nearby buildings. Bomb specialists and firefighters combed through the Ubisoft offices, but weren’t able to find an explosive.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
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Since then, Ubisoft employees have returned to the Montpellier studio, according to a spokesperson speaking to GameSpot. It’s not clear if the hoaxer could still pose a threat to the building, or if this was essentially a swatting prank, in which a false crime-in-progress is reported to cause police to show up at an unsuspecting victim’s location. The people working at Ubisoft Montpellier and the surrounding buildings were likely rattled by the threat, but thankfully, no one was hurt.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing has become all too common in the game industry. Big names like Nintendo, Capcom, Insomniac Games have all faced threats made to the studio itself or individual developers working for them, leading to cancellations of game events and frayed nerves. With the relative anonymity of the internet, some have become flippant in making threats when things don’t work out the way that they want in games. For example, performer Laura Bailey received death threats due to players being angry about her character, Abby, in The Last of Us Part 2, while studios and developers have received threats for everything from not putting out updates quickly enough to games not being as “good” as the individuals making the threats expected.
In some cases, studios have threatened legal action against those making the threats, while others have seen the suspects brought to justice. In Ubisoft’s case, the hoax hostage scenario at Ubisoft Montreal resulted in the accused being sentenced to three years of community service and mandatory mental health care. In another case, an arrest was eventually made after Nintendo was forced to cancel a live event back in 2024 in order to protect its staff and attendees from potential dangers.
Gamers aren’t immune to this kind of thing either, with swatting happening all too often, especially to streamers. These incidents have seen streams interrupted by cops suddenly swarming their homes or offices, leading to some streamers developing PTSD. In the worst scenarios, a swatting incident has led to a victim being killed by law enforcement. In one such case, the victim wasn’t even remotely involved in the initial incident leading to the swatting, and lost his life as a result of the so-called prank. 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 are able to locate the person who made the hoax bomb threat.
Source: Midi Libre
