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Assassin's Creed Creative Lead Hiring at THQ Leads to Recruitment Injunction

Posted March 31, 2011 by M.H. Williams

Losing Assassin’s Creed creative director Patrice Désilets and three other key employees to THQ’s new Montreal startup was a large blow for French publisher Ubisoft.  French newspaper Rue Frontenac reports that Ubisoft has obtained an injunction against THQ, preventing the competitor from poaching more talent from Ubisoft Montreal. 

“Ubisoft has filed a request before the Superior Court of Québec for injunction orders against THQ Inc. in order to have them comply with the non-solicit clause included in Ubisoft Montreal’s employee work contracts. The Superior Court of Québec has granted the injunctions to the satisfaction of Ubisoft. This procedure aims to protect Ubisoft Montreal in a breach of contract situation, and to defend the long-term financial and creative health of the studio,” Ubisoft told Game Informer in a statement.

Désilets abruptly left Ubisoft in May of 2010, while making a considerable salary of $1.3 million Canadian over the course of three years.  He also left around $600,000 in future bonuses on table with his departure.  Everything was made clear in October, when THQ announced that Désilets was going to be heading up its newly formed Montreal studio.  Three more key members were mentioned as moving from Ubisoft with Désilets:  these employees were later revealed as art director Alex Drouin, production manager Mark Besner, and associate producer Jean-Francois Boivin.

"I don't think I can talk about the other three people we've already contracted because I wouldn't ... I just know Patrice said, 'I need these three guys.' And I said 'Okay! Whatever you need!'," said Bilson at the time. "We put all of them on retention and got them started on their non-competes [non-compete clauses]. I kind of know what their roles are, but they were the most important people to Patrice. All three of them are Ubi."

With the admission from Bilson about Désilets’ involvement in the departure of the three gentlemen, Ubisoft obtained its first injunction against THQ and Désilets in January of 2011.  The company later discovered another former employee, Adolfo Gomez-Urda, was offering Ubisoft employees salary raises to jump ship to THQ.  This led to the court’s current injunction against Gomez-Urda.

It’s seemingly a dirty business between the two companies, but it will be interesting to see what game comes out of THQ Montreal and what effect the departure will have on Ubisoft Montreal’s future titles.  

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.