The exceptional disastrous situation in the video games industry calls for an exceptional response. Everything points to the French video game industry being in a critical situation. We refuse to let this situation play out without taking action. One month after our national strike on May 27th, the situation hasn’t gotten any better, and even more jobs are under threat. More than 1,000 jobs have already been destroyed or threatened, meaning more than 1,000 lives are permanently impacted.
An avoidable situation, an irresponsible leadership
After years of warnings about particularly difficult working conditions, and after securing convictions against numerous companies for their illegal activities and shortcomings, studio closures and layoff plans are now multiplying in France and abroad. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking these factors are unrelated.
The failure of our leaders to train and retain a skilled workforce, their repeated abuse against workers, their deep-seated stance against unions, their incompetence in project management, and their inability to listen to warnings have all directly led to the current situation. This crisis was avoidable, but our bosses chose to drive blindly towards disaster.
The government is equally culpable. By subsidizing an industry with questionable practices without any oversight, it encouraged a harmful and unsustainable economic and social system, potentially leading today to the collapse of the country’s leading cultural sector.
Executives claim this is just a rough patch and that the crisis will eventually pass, without actually trying to do anything to stop it. Whatever happens, there are workers for whom this will have grave consequences. Meanwhile bosses, many of which have amassed millions in recent years, will continue to lounge in their mansions with indoor pools, even if their studios are shut-down.
The health consequences of losing one’s job are particularly significant. And the workers who remain face increasingly degraded working conditions and are not immune to losing their jobs in the months and years to come. With AI lurking in the shadows and the increased use of outsourcing (whether local through undeclared work or abroad), there is no doubt that working conditions and employment will continue to deteriorate if we remain passive in front of increasingly short-sighted companies.
We know that this situation will only repeat itself and even worsen if habits and processes are not fundamentally changed. Workers must have a voice so that management stops imposing foolish and harmful decisions that lead to the predictable failure of projects, which endangers workers. Democracy must prevail in the workplace.
National mobilization on June 25 in support of the workers at Quantic Dream
For all these reasons, the STJV is calling for a strike across the entire video game sector on Thursday, June 25, to organize and unite in the fight against the ongoing layoffs and to demand major organizational changes within their companies, and giving significant weight to democracy and collective decision-making.
Layoffs will not save the video game industry, quite the opposite. It is essential that bosses, journalists, public authorities, and elected officials become aware of the catastrophic, predictable, and avoidable situation facing the video game industry today. This date is just the first in a large-scale mobilization to come.
Quantic Dream is currently undergoing the largest layoff plan in the french industry since Blizzard in 2018, which plans to destroy 115 jobs, representing a quarter of the company’s workforce in France. This is in addition to several dozen layoffs already confirmed at the Montreal studio. Meanwhile, working conditions continue to deteriorate within the company, with open overtime, without any accountability for the executives. We cannot accept this. We reaffirm our commitment to saving studios by fundamentally changing their outdated practices.
A picket line will be held starting at 9:30 AM in front of Quantic Dream, at 30 Rue Raoul Wallenberg, 75019 Paris. We call on all workers, regardless of their employer, status, or location, to come together to share, discuss, and organize. Faced with the uncertainty of our futures, let’s stand together to show our unity and solidarity and demand improvements.
We remind you that this call to action covers the scope of the STJV in the private sector, and therefore concerns anyone employed by a video game company, be it publishing, distribution, services, and/or production, regardless of their position or status and regardless of their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, merchandise, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as all teachers working in private schools in video game-related programs. Since this is a national strike call, no specific action is required to participate: you can simply not show up to work.
We will communicate further details on future actions at a later date. Summer has only just begun, and it’s going to be hot!