Today, Wednesday May 6th 2026, the first meeting to inform worker representatives of violent and massive layoffs at Kylotonn, following Nacon’s will, should have been held. This meeting was postponed at the last minute to May 13th, probably to try to save the “Nacon Connect” on May 7th, the group’s “big” marketing event. Once more, Nacon is unable to anticipate and changes its plans at the last minute. But we don’t.

Today’s situation follows years of warnings on the company’s financial situation, on the denial of democracy imposed on workers and their representatives, on the disorganised productions led by what we consider incompetent people, and on the catastrophic working conditions which damaged our health. As can be seen in our previous communications, in 2023, 2024 and 2026.

But we held on, and found the strength to fight despite:

the commercial arrangements, some of those we think are more like shady schemes, which emptied Nacon’s subsidiaries coffers, creating the domino effect leading to judicial reorganisation proceedings,
the company structures designed to silence us,
the embezzlement, some proven others suspected, by Kylotonn executives,
the insults, Kylotonn executives going as far as calling us “piss-stinking”,
the removal – on Nacon’s orders – of all dialogue lines referring to homosexual relationships in Test Drive Unlimited, to avoid an imaginary “review bombing”,
the harassment and discrimination causing work-related illnesses,
the random demands from Nacon’s executives, that we think is pur sabotage of our productions, made without doing market research or asking the studios’ opinion – for instance making us do a large open world on a game engine designed for limited levels, without financing the development costs of said engine, and despite the workers lacking experience on this genre,
the multiple interferences to worker representation…

But now, thanks to the management at Kylotonn which we find servile and indulgent, Nacon can finally make its dream of slashing the jobs it deems unnecessary a reality. Kylotonn’s workforce and skills were already partially looted after the creation of Grit Games, a studio even more integrated in Nacon, which picked up the WRC licence. It appears that Grit Games hand picked its employees, being careful to avoid recruiting union members, women and gender minorities.

Among its goals for Kylotonn’s judicial reorganisation, Nacon states, without batting an eye, that it does not want to give new productions to Kylotonn anymore, for an indeterminate amount of time. It only wants to keep a skeleton crew to keep squeezing Test Drive Unlimited through aggressive monetisation. After the cancellation of a promising project in preproduction, with no possibility to look for other publishers or investors, the setup is complete. The only thing left to do is the dirty work: firing all the “surplus” workers like trash.

Anger in top gear

Nacon’s silence on the ongoing events is telling. We believe it is a series of premeditated events, to make workers pay for the audacity of organising themselves, fighting for better working conditions, trying to make production processes more democratic and more efficient. This is just the prolongation of the silence we’ve been enduring for years.

However, the workers at Kylotonn, true to their commitment over the last years both inside and outside the company, will not back down.

We are calling for an open-ended strike starting today, Wednesday May 6th 2026, at least until Monday May 11th, to protest against the vile reorganisation we are subjected to, and which would leave Nacon emerging unscathed, without giving us what we’re owed. Pursuing the production of Endurance Motorsport Series (EMS) and Test Drive Unlimited (TDU) as if nothing was happening would be allowing Nacon to sell games made and refined by the very same workers it wants to fire violently and ungratefully, through abject layoffs using the judicial reorganisation proceedings to silence us. Our only mean to efficiently protest, to force them to come to the negotiating table and take us seriously, is to attack their finances by slowing down production and affecting the release dates. Our strike will be renewed as long as needed.

We demand:

that all layoffs be cancelled as long as there is no solid plan to ensure the company’s future,
the reactivation of the unannounced project, and its presentation to other publishers and investors,
the transition of all workers to the Engineers & Professionals status to increase their rights and protection against these shameful acts,
the contractual revision of the links between Kylotonn and Nacon, to put an end to the power of life and death the group has on our lives and work.

To use an expression from our comrades at Spiders, you will not pillage the fruit of our labour on the still warm corpses of our jobs.

We call on everyone supporting us, as well as all the players who will understand with this press release that Nacon is the sole decision-maker on everything they complain about, to donate to the strike fund setup for the occasion. We also call on the solidarity of our sister companies and contractors’ workers: the balance of power will shift with our combined efforts.

We extend our solidarity to our comrades at Spiders and Nacon Tech, spinelessly liquidated and whose work will keep on making money for Nacon, and to our comrades at Cyanide and Big Bad Wolf who are waiting to learn their fate.

Picket lines will be held on Thursday May 7th at 10am, in front of our offices in Paris and Lyon. We are calling on everyone to meet us at the 33 rue Maurice Flandrin in Lyon, and 96 rue Orfila in Paris. Worker representatives will take the floor at 11:30.