NEWS / HUMAN INTEREST

What happened at Ubisoft Montreal? Employee tweets they’re safe but 'colleagues in next building are stuck'

Reportedly, there may have been a possible hostage situation at the gaming studio. But Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, Montreal's police force said, 'No threat has been identified for now'

MONTREAL, CANADA: On Friday, November 13, news reports and tweets alerted of a possible hostage situation in the Montreal headquarters of the French video game company called Ubisoft. As per a local media outlet called LCN, a group of suspects is holding several people hostage at Ubisoft Montreal, located on Saint-Laurent Boulevard, in the Mile End neighborhood of Montreal. The situation reportedly began around 1:30 pm ET.

The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, Montreal's police force, confirmed a "police operation" on Twitter, saying, “There is an ongoing police operation at the corner of Saint-Laurent and St-Viateur. We ask people to avoid the area. The #SPVM is currently validating information and more details will follow,” and later adding, “Officers have been sent to the location following a 911 call. Specialized #SPVM officers are on-site inspecting the premises. There are no injuries reported.”

Montreal mayor Valérie Plante confirmed to the media that her office is coordinating with the police and monitoring the situation and echoed the police's request for everyone to avoid the area.

Following that, the Montreal police Twitter account, a little more than 30 minutes after the previous update, said, “No threat has been identified for now. We are currently evacuating the building. #SPVM.”

But is there more to it? According to Jason Schreier, a video game reporter for Bloomberg News, “Clearly something scary happening at Ubisoft Montreal, but be wary of misinformation on Twitter. Employees tell Bloomberg they've received security instructions but don't know what happened. Ubisoft PR says: ‘We are aware of the situation and working with local authorities’.”

In a now-deleted tweet, Eric Pope, a community manager with the gaming studio, who is reportedly working from home at the moment, said he recognized co-workers fleeing to the building’s roof in aerial footage shown on television. He said, “this is insane. this is my team on the roof.” Pope wrote on Twitter after that, "Was on a call with folks at the office and they had to leave abruptly."

Another Ubisoft employee wrote on Twitter, "I’m safe, team here is safe, going home." They followed it with, "My colleagues in the building next are still stuck, Please send good wishes." They finally wrote, "I'm not giving more info because the cops need to handle this. I got out and am okay, just thinking of my colleagues now. Please take care. tell people you love them etc, you know the drill."

Live-streamed footage from local news outlets -- filmed reportedly from a helicopter -- showed a group of people together on the roof deck of the building behind a makeshift barricade seemingly constructed of folding tables leaning against the access door. While an armored police truck was seen pulling up to the building, such a deployment is supposedly normal, even if the hostage-taking is not confirmed, an ex-police officer called Mario Berniquer explained to the media.

However, some local news reports noted that the office building in question also houses businesses other than Ubisoft Montreal, making it unclear if the crisis directly involves the gaming studio.

As per a report on Ars Technica, staffers were escorted from the building's lower floors at roughly 3:30 pm ET, while other staffers remained barricaded on the building's roof. At the time of writing this report, what exactly happened and what prompted it remained unclear.

Ubisoft, founded in France in 1986, is globally famous for creating several critically-acclaimed video game franchises. Their work includes franchises like 'Rayman', 'Raving Rabbids', 'Prince of Persia', 'Assassin's Creed', 'Far Cry', 'Just Dance', and the 'Tom Clancy's' series.