I sort of remember at some point when Unity came out and that criticism was coming in, someone at Ubisoft said they didn't want to do French accented English because they were afraid it would sound cartoonish, like Pepe Lepew.It always strikes me as weird that some of the French citizens in Unity had British accents. You think a company based in France wouldn’t have a problem hiring French actors to voice French npcs.
On the one hand, Ubi's explanation for such things doesn't have a good track record (e.g., gender representation). But I gotta say whether they were being honest or not, I see it.
"Of course I am French, why do you think I have this outRAGeous accent?!"- Monty Python and the Holy Grail