Ubisoft Workers to Protest and Strike Against CEO Amidst Financial Turmoil

Ubisoft stated last week that 2023 has not been going well for them thus far. More significantly, the company’s inability to produce games that people care about has resulted in substantial financial loss. Skull & Bones game was again postponed. Now that the Solidaires Informatique union has called for a strike at Ubisoft Paris on January 27, Ubisoft is in even more trouble. Many of the casino and sportsbook reviews published on wetten.com USA are in connection to games developed by Ubisoft, and News such as these usually create ripples across the markets.

With major game manufacturers and the breed of new-age MMOs, MMORPGs, and AAA game types flooding the markets, the way the 80s – 90s players perceived video games has changed dynamically. And classical video game companies such as Ubisoft operating since 1986, are struggling to compete with the fiercely competitive markets and maintain the quality that new-age gamers expect.

Reasons Behind Urging for Strike

If the company is in difficulties, a strike can seem like an unusual response—at least outside of France. It results from comments made by Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, who said in last week’s update that the business is trying to slash €200 million ($215 million) in spending over the next two years through “targeted restructuring, divesting some non-core assets, and typical natural attrition”. In a subsequent email to Ubisoft staff members, as reported by Kotaku, Guillemot pleaded for their full energy and commitment to ensure to get back on the path to success, adding, “I am also asking that each of you be especially careful and strategic with your spending and initiatives, to ensure we’re being as efficient and lean as possible”. Solidaires Informatique took exception to Guillemot’s remarks, calling them catastrophic and charging the CEO with issues like staff reductions, covert studio closures, wage cuts, and concealed layoffs.

The union stated in its call for a strike that Mr. Guillemot is trying to transfer the burden (again) onto the staff numerous times; he expects them to be mobilized, to give it their best, and to be as efficient and lean as possible. Mr. Guillemot places a lot of demands on his staff without offering them any pay. Overtime, managerial pressure, burnout, etc. are some of the other major problems faced by workers. The studio claimed that Ubisoft’s salaries have not kept up with inflation, that the company has not adopted a four-day work week (Ubisoft reportedly tried a 36-hour work week in 2021 but decided against continuing with it), and that there are no safeguards in place for exhausted development teams once their projects are finished.

Demands by the Union

  1. Regardless of annual increases, an immediate 10% raise for all salaries is required to account for inflation. Employers now have money thanks to the hundreds of millions of euros they received from Tencent.
  2. Demand the establishment of the four-day workweek and the general improvement of working conditions.
  3. Transparency regarding the local and international workforce’s evolution.
  4. A steadfast opposition to converting terminations and denunciation of abusive management practices that induce resignation.

Conclusion

Solidaires Informatique called on the staff of Ubisoft Paris to go on strike on Friday, January 27, in the afternoon, from 2 to 6 p.m., because Mr. Guillemot and his clique only comprehend the power dynamic. The French labor union Solidaires Informatique which has a chapter at the Paris studio and many other IT companies in France but not others have called for a strike only at Ubisoft Paris, not the entire company. This is not the first time the union has taken legal action against Ubisoft. In 2021, the union accused the company of institutional sexual harassment, and later that year it denounced Ubisoft’s ambitions to enter into NFTs as useless, expensive, and ecologically mortifying.

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