Strike at Kylotonn against Nacon’s strategy of silence

Workers at Kylotonn are on strike today Monday, September 2nd to support their colleagues at Spiders.

Both studios are property of the Nacon group and encounter similar problems such as: hiring, turn over, a general lack of information about the future of our companies and the productions…

Management regularly brings up the studios’ supposed independence, but every demand we make gets rejected with the argument that there should be coherence within the Nacon group. Much in the same way, negotiations are hampered under the same pretense.

If no improvement in our working conditions is offered because “it would drive other studios within the group to ask for the same”, it stands to reason then that we make those demands together.

We thank the respective management of our studios for raising awareness of the group’s importance, and are now working on consolidating it. This is why, as workers at Kylotonn, we are expressing our solidarity with our colleagues at Spiders and are calling for a strike on September 2nd!

Open letter from Spiders’ workers to their employer

[08/31/2024] Update from the Spiders workers’ action committee: Spiders management met with workers on Friday morning. We are pleased to have had the opportunity to discuss a number of issues with them, but we are still waiting for concrete measures and commitment from them. A second open meeting is scheduled for Monday morning. We are maintaining our call for a strike next week. A picket will be held on Monday morning starting at 9:30 a.m. in front of Spiders’ offices at 6 Rue André Voguet in Ivry-sur-Seine, and we are inviting our supporters to join us there. Workers will also be meeting online.

This open-letter from workers at Spiders to their employers is being published by the STJV at their request. Spiders is a paris-area studio 100% owned by Nacon. It produced games such as Greedfall and Steelrising, and is currently working on Greedfall 2 and an unannounced project.

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This letter to our management follows an earlier open letter and a strike on January 19, which management has chosen to ignore. Since then, new negotiations have begun on wages, and conditions in the studio have continued to deteriorate. Today, it is with regret that we speak out publicly, in the hope that this will finally push management to act in the best interests of employees and the company.

This document covers several years of known problems, which have been greatly amplified over the past year with the arrival of the current head of the company : instability, opposition to anticipating problems and securing working conditions, global mismanagement, turnover and recruitment problems, unacceptable delays in achieving gender equality and parity, important lack of transparency, denial of problems, refusal to acknowledge worker representation and blocked negotiations.

As of August 28, 2024, this letter has been signed by 43 workers at Spiders, out of 95.

We had demanded that the head of the company receive a delegation of Spiders’ workers to discuss all these points. She accepted, the delegation came to a meeting on August 27 and then waited in vain for the management to come, which it never did.

Call for strike action during the week of September 2

In light of management’s continued refusal to discuss, take the problems raised seriously and act to rectify them, we are calling on Spiders workers to go on strike during the week of September 2, 2024, on the basis of the demands set out above.

In particular, we will be organizing pickets on September 2 and 3 in front of the company’s offices and online on a Minecraft server created for the occasion.

We are inviting our relatives, friends, supporters, workers in the industry in general, journalists and political actors to join us at the pickets.

To help us strike, and if you have the means to do so, you can make a donation to the STJV strike fund, which has been activated for this strike at the request of the STJV section. Instructions on how to donate can be found on this page. Don’t hesitate to specify “Spiders” in the reference of your transfer. We’ll keep track of the sums paid to workers.

For any questions, messages of encouragement or inquiries, we invite you to contact in priority the Spiders workers’ action committee: . As a second resort, you can contact the STJV union section, which will pass on messages: .

Do not hesitate to ask for the files of the cartoons used in the letter, we can provide them by email.

Amplitude Studios: a collective victory at the mandatory 2024 negotiations

In a tough context for the video games industry, the STJV section of Amplitude Studios is pleased to report the encouraging results in the 2024 annual mandatory negotiations (NAO) with the studio’s management.

Along the past year, a delegation comprised of the STJV union delegate at Amplitude Studios and workers representatives from the CSE led the NAO 2024 to an agreement with the studio’s management.

These negotiations were concluded on an equal footing with management who, despite initial resistance, opened up to discussion thanks to the joint efforts of the STJV section and a keen interest shown by the studio’s workers.

An agreement was signed on June 17th, 2024, bringing Amplitude’s workers:

  • The abolition of the ETAM (employee) status and the promotion of every employee to the executive (Ingénieur et Cadre, IC) status of the SYNTEC collective bargaining agreement;
  • A minimum raise of 1400€ on the annual gross salary per employee for 2024 ;
  • A raise of internships stipend to 1300 € per month, as well as a raise of work-study contracts’ wages to a minimum of 1321 € ;
  • Better on-call duty working conditions for the relevant teams, including the provision of company smartphones ;
  • The introduction of a cap to the top-level salaries raises budget: Directors/Chiefs/Head of…

The switch to the Ingénieur et Cadres (executive) status for everyone is merely the correction of a pervasive injustice in our industry: everyone of us is practicing a skilled job, requiring autonomy and expertise. This status gives, among other things, access to better compensations in case of medical leave or layoff, as well as better retirement contributions. Find out more about the Syntec status in our practical guide.

Studio management also conceded the opening of a deep reflection about the studio’s compensation policy with the studio’s labor organizations (STJV section and workers’ representatives). It started in June 2024 and will last until the next NAO in March 2025.

The STJV section at Amplitude Studios thanks the employees for their involvement, and stays available for any feedback or questions they might be able to help on.

In these troubled times both for the video games industry and for France’s political landscape, it is easy to lose hope against rising inflation and attacks on our social rights. This victory stands as proof that together, we can obtain better work conditions for ourselves.

We encourage workers to join unions, and to get involved in fighting to preserve our rights and gain new ones.

Election emergency against the far right

We need to defend our rights and freedoms


Successive governments have destroyed public services, attacked justice and individual freedoms, and shattered labour laws. By legitimising far-right ideas and setting up fascism as a possible alternative, they have created the current situation.

Last Sunday, the far right came out well ahead in the French European elections. In the immediate aftermath, the President decided to add fuel to the fire by disbanding the National Assembly.

Legislative elections will be held in less than 3 weeks: the first round will take place on 30 June, and the second on 7 July. These elections may well bring the far right to power in France.

The far right in power means being caught between a rock and a hard place. Wherever it is in power, whether abroad or in our city halls, it follows the same programme:

  • deadly austerity, destruction of public services
  • undermining freedom of expression, of the press, of association and of trade unions
  • reducing access to culture, information and justice
  • attacking the rights of women, LGBT people, foreigners…

Everywhere the actions and votes of the far right prove that it is the enemy of workers. In France, for example, it has voted against: pay rises, housing benefits, increases in hospital budgets, and all ecological measures. Nor is it opposed to raising the retirement age…

We call on workers to mobilise against the far right and to join the demonstrations and rallies taking place on the weekend of 15 June.

We encourage workers to vote in the next elections to prevent the far right from coming to power, to get involved in the election campaign, which promises to be intense, and of course to get involved in the trade union and anti-fascist struggle which will be the only way for workers to win in the long term.

Do you have any questions about the electoral process, proxy voting, voter registration, etc.? We encourage you to get in touch with union activists near you or to contact us.

Let’s defeat the far right today through unity at the ballot box. Let’s defeat it tomorrow by fighting for social policies. Let’s make it disappear forever through solidarity and internationalism.

Stop the massacres in Palestine – day of action on 8 June

Since October, the violence perpetrated by the Israeli far-right and Israeli army against Palestinians has only increased, reaching genocidal proportions by imposing an unbearable siege on the population in which famine affects everyone and the Israeli army’s bombings and murders by drones are constant.

In the north of the Gaza Strip, which has been split in two for several months now, what little news is getting out is more catastrophic than ever, as this part of the world is effectively cut off from all supplies of water, food and healthcare.

In the south, Israel has forced Gazans to move to Rafah and along the Egyptian border, then near the sea in an ever smaller area where the density of displaced population is only increasing. The Israeli army is currently attacking and bombing this area full of civilians, breaking ever more despicable horror records.

In the West Bank, the settlers and the Israeli army are exploiting the situation, in line with Israel’s colonial policy, to multiply murders, violence, destruction, land seizures and humiliation of the Palestinian population.

Israel, with the support or complicit indifference of the majority of Western countries, including France, allows itself to ignore the condemnations and arrest warrants issued by international legal bodies, and is actively campaigning to weaken international law.

Mobilisations for a ceasefire, an end to the genocide in Palestine and the release of all hostages have continued non-stop since October, despite repression by the French government. They have resumed in earnest in recent days.

In this context, we communicated in October about the links between video games and the politics of violence around the world. Today, the STJV is joining the unitary call initiated by the CGT, and is calling on video game workers and the population as a whole to come together and demonstrate en masse on Saturday 8 June.

We demand:

  • an end to war crimes and crimes against humanity as named by the International Criminal Court
  • compliance with international humanitarian law
  • an immediate ceasefire and the lifting of the blockade on Gaza
  • an end to the bombing and forced displacement of the population
  • the protection of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank
  • the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas
  • the release of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held without trial in Israel;
  • an trade embargo on settlements in occupied Palestine
  • sanctions, including the suspension of the association agreement between the European Union and Israel
  • an immediate cessation of all military cooperation with Israel and all arms deliveries
  • a just and lasting peace between Palestinians and Israelis
Flag Of Palestine

Unacceptable pressure on negotiations at Spiders

While negotiations are taking place at Spiders on remote work and annual pay rises for 2024, company COO and SNJV (french employer’s organisation) president Anne Devouassoux took the liberty of demanding that the STJV change the company’s trade union delegate.

Negotiations at Spiders have been going on for several months now, and have been slowed down by the management’s attitude. The climate surrounding these negotiations is very tense. As our union delegate was on sick leave for 4 weeks, negotiations were necessarily put on hold during this period, but all we had to do was wait for his return to resume them.

Anne Devouassoux, who wants to roll back the freedom to work from home acquired within the studio and is offering workers “between 0 and 3%” pay increase, sent an unbelievable mail to our union and our delegate. In her letter, she tries to exert pressure on our representatives to put an end to negotiations altough they have no deadline. These actions constitute union discrimination against our delegate.

Before trying to intimidate a democratic and independent trade union, she could have turned to the STJV’s duly mandated negotiating delegation in her company.

Anne Devouassoux claims to represent employees and to be acting in their best interests, while at the same time threatening in a follow-up email to unilaterally terminate negotiations, which would lead to the imposition of rules that have been overwhelmingly rejected by Spiders’ workers, whatever the management is pretending internally. Whilst workers want negotiations to succeed, they do not want this to happen at any cost.

As an employer, and the president of an employers’ union to boot, Anne Devouassoux cannot claim to represent and defend the interests of workers, especially when she has explicitly refused to consult Spiders employees on the negotiations underway. Workers are represented by the elected staff representatives and the representative trade unions in the company.

We demand that she put an end to these gross manoeuvres, and that she respect employee representation, our trade union freedom and the principles of fair negotiation. The injunctions and allusions made in her letter and email are intolerable. Trade union discrimination is an offence under the French Labour Code and Criminal Code.

To ensure that negotiations run smoothly and reach a successful conclusion, we advise Spiders’ management to provide the delegation with the necessary information, listen to employees and accede to the demands of the STJV trade union section.

This advice applies to all companies. We will never give in to intimidation, and we will help all workers who are victims of it.

Call for donations to the STJV strike fund – 2024

The current situation

For several months now we have been lamenting a particularly lack of commitment on the part of video game industry employers. They believe that social dialogue means imposing their conditions unilaterally and ignoring workers’ demands and rights. It goes without saying that this kind of position also has consequences for the quality of games.

In many French studios, elected workers and union representatives have voiced their disagreement and told their employers that this situation is completely unacceptable.

In addition, and despite the spectacular mobilisations that have taken place in many studios throughout France, without necessarily having been made public, we are not seeing any appropriate reaction from our employers.

Since it is absolutely out of the question to cease fighting for workers’ rights in the industry, and as we anticipate an escalation in conflicts, we believe it is necessary to do everything we can to strengthen our means of action. And among these actions we believe it is necessary to economically re-arm the social movement in our branch.

The STJV’s strike fund is fed by a share of its members’ dues, but remains largely dependent on donations. This is why we are launching a call for donations to the STJV’s strike fund.

This call is addressed to all those who have the means to do so, and who wish to support social action in our industry.

What will it be used for?

These donations will be dedicated to the strike fund, and exclusively dedicated to this purpose. They will be used to provide an income for striking workers, by going directly into the local strike funds run by workers.

Traditionally, strikers meet to decide collectively and democratically how to distribute the available funds, taking into account the information available to them, everyone’s needs and the future of the movement.

Why donate to our strike fund?

If you work in the video games industry

Then you probably already understand why we need to be prepared. We invite you to donate if, for example, you are not in a position to go on strike because your working conditions do not allow you to, but you have sufficient financial means. Or if you work alongside people who are involved in games production but you are not directly involved yourself, and you would like to give them strength.

If you don’t work in the industry, but play games

In that case, it is also in your interest that good working conditions are ensured in game studios. Companies in which workers’ voices are no longer taken into account are also companies in which the final result of the work done is likely to be mediocre.

Video game development is a collective effort that requires intelligent organisation, both to ensure that the people working on it don’t burn out and to ensure that the end result is correct. If you’re interested, we recommend a video (in French) on the Bolchegeek channel on this subject.

Whether we’re criticising dysfunctional working conditions or the mediocre state in which games are released, we’re talking about the same thing: absurd decisions taken against all logic, ignoring the warnings of those who actually work. Our response to these problems must be collective.

How can I donate?

To donate to the STJV’s strike fund, all you have to do is make a transfer to the STJV’s strike fund account, which can be found below:

IBAN: FR76 1027 8060 3100 0207 2930 259

BIC: CMCIFR2A

To simplify accounting and the identification of donations to the strike fund, please remember to mention “strike fund” in the description of your transfer.

March 8, 2024 feminist strike: putting an end to the obstacles to the recognition of sexual and gender-based violence in the video game industry

March 8 is the international day of action for the rights of women and gender minorities, which celebrates the historical and current battles of feminism. Women and marginalised genders are and always have been present in social conflicts: March 8 is itself the anniversary of the 1917 strike by women workers in St Petersburg, which sparked off the Russian revolutions.

Last year, by force of circumstance, March 8 was included in the more global movement against the pension reform. The authoritarianism of the French government and the forced passage of this reform were a severe defeat for the rights of women and marginalised genders: the government’s own studies show that the negative impacts of this reform are doubled for women.

This year, March 8 is taking place in a very dramatic context. In our industry, we are seriously concerned about the consequences on women of the massive waves of layoffs that are currently taking place. Most of the jobs being eliminated are precarious, disproportionately occupied by people of marginalised genders, who will also have to endure discrimination when looking for work.

Women and queer people have also been instrumentalised for months to justify Israel’s genocidal policy against Palestinians. Our Palestinian brothers and sisters are being slaughtered before the eyes of the whole world, and they would have us believe that Israeli crimes are positive. What benefits do Palestinian women and queer people derive from starvation, disease, the eradication of their own people, their own deaths?

The very existence of genocidal colonial systems is incompatible with the freedom of people of marginalised gender. There can be no liberation of women and queer people without the liberation of Palestine. This March 8 will also be an opportunity to support them.

However, there have also been some improvements, for example:

  • Spain was the first country in Europe to introduce menstrual leave. This long-awaited right has been the subject of a draft law in France and is one of the STJV’s demands, which has been systematically refused by companies.
  • Thanks to the mobilisation of feminist movements across the country, Mexico has finally legalised abortion at federal level. Fighting wins.

Generally speaking, we can see that in France, despite all the obstacles, more and more people are speaking out. We’re obviously thinking of the film industry, but this is also the case all across society. The subject of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is finally emerging as a public social issue, for the benefit of all those who are subjected to it. We welcome and support these initiatives.

Companies and schools: inclusive in words, sexist in deeds

Since last year, the friendly facade of video game schools and companies has collided head-on with worker representatives. Everywhere, all it takes is a few questions to confuse management and confirm what we already knew: behind the words, there is nothing. No monitoring of sexist and sexual violence, no warning systems, no measures to combat discrimination…

By refusing to respond, but also by reformulating all the proposals and demands of workers and unions to remove any concrete and useful vocabulary in favour of completely meaningless managerial phrases, bosses are actively fighting to deny the existence of problems. They do this consciously, to prevent workers from rationalising these problems and being able to act upon them.

In response to our calls for clear and unambiguous processes to combat SGBV and discrimination at work, we are told that “the doors of HR or management are always open”. By brushing aside the role of management itself and denying staff representatives the ability to take action, they isolate victims and single out cases of violence, in order to undermine them and prevent a more global approach.

Far from being innocent or thoughtless, these practices of referring to an oppressive system (the company hierarchy) which has a clear interest in keeping violence hidden, are silencing victims and witnesses. The “open door” is at best a naive dead end, at worst discriminatory violence itself.

Unions, workers and workers’ representatives engaged in an ongoing struggle

Workers have tools at their disposal to combat SGBV and discrimination: it is the role of the CSE (~workers’ council) to monitor the integrity of management, to offer a practical, on-the-ground response via its anti-harassment advisers, to sound the alarm and not to lose sight of risk indicators. This workers’ representatives body has the power to report problems to health and safety inspectors and to initiate investigations through its reporting rights.

In companies where the STJV is representative after a victory in the CSE elections, the union sections address these subjects within compulsory annual negotiations on professional equality (and therefore gender equality). By law, this is a time to discuss the fight against discrimination, and to negotiate or even impose more by building a balance of power in favour of workers.

Problem: these negotiations are systematically blocked by company managers. Recently, comrades denounced the blocking of negotiations and workers’ representatives at Don’t Nod, and workers at Ubisoft went on strike in reaction to the absence of any real wage negotiations on the part of the group’s management. These elements made public are accompanied across the industry by a multitude of other struggles, including strikes, which have remained private for the time being. The discontent is widespread.

By blocking negotiations on gender equality, by postponing them on the pretext that it is a “less urgent” subject, by ignoring workers’ representatives, the bosses refuse to let workers express themselves or to listen to their demands. They prefer to ” observe the absence” of harassment, violence or discrimination and pretend that everything is fine.

Willful ignorance is not an anti-discrimination policy, but an extreme form of additional violence. It sends a message to victims of SGBV that the violence and discrimination they suffer does not count and will not be resolved in their workplace.

Tearing down existing barriers

Workers’ demands in the video game industry are simple, and it’s almost mind-boggling that we have to make them in the first place:

  • company management must actually listen to workers, and therefore take the feedback from their representatives‧es seriously and respect negotiations ;
  • concrete processes for gathering data and information must be put in place, so that they can then be provided to staff representatives ;
  • this second point must be accompanied by the public availability of non-personal statistics and data, and in particular the introduction of pay scales ;
  • to prevent the silencing of workers, real internal feedback, alert and investigation processes must be created that include worker representation bodies.

In short and to be perfectly clear: we demand that company executives stop caring about marginalised genders only to use them as a stepping stone for their company’s image, their personal careers or to maximise profits.

As we argued last year in a review of our industry and our role, the fight against gender oppression will be fought through unions. This assertion stems from the realisation that our rights will never be won without a fight.

The Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo is therefore calling for strikes in the video game industry on Friday 8 March 2024. We call on workers, unemployed people, pensioners and students from the video game industry to mobilise in companies, and to join the demonstrations that will take place everywhere in France on that day.

This call covers the STJV’s field of action in the private sector, and therefore applies to any person employed by a video game publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company, whatever their position or status and whatever their company’s area of activity (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as to all teachers working in private schools in video game-related courses. As this is a national strike call, no action is necessary to go on strike: just don’t come to work.

DON’T NOD: Ascension or free fall?

Don’t Nod is known for its narrative games tackling issues of inclusion and diversity. Its official website goes even further, claiming that “caring about one another is at the heart of everything we do and is the central theme of our values”. Unfortunately, as often in the video game industry, these values are not put into practice despite being frequently highlighted in corporate communications and in the press.

On May 31, 2022, while revealing its new visual identity, Don’t Nod announced 6 new games were in development, of which 4 in-house production lines and 2 produced externally. Just over a year later, on October 19, 2023, Don’t Nod went further, announcing « a 10.3% increase in sales, a record balance sheet (€60M cash net of debt), and a pipeline of 8 games in production » (« une activité en hausse de 10,3%, un bilan record (60M€ cash net de dettes), et un pipeline de 8 jeux en production ») while unveiling its half-year results (“H1 2023”).

We’re sounding the alarm on the situation of Don’t Nod employees.

The STJV is concerned that the company will not be able to manage these multiple parallel productions:

  • deadlines change very frequently
  • information and directions given to teams are contradictory
  • employees are moved from one team to another with no long-term vision of projects
  • a grueling reorganization, which took over a year to be fully implemented, is leaving entire teams out in the cold.

In a studio where each project erratically follows another, time and long-term vision required for the employees’ welfare is disappearing, leading to more stress among workers and creating boreout/burnout situations by leaving us all waiting for decisions to be taken by management.

The STJV is concerned about the psychosocial hazards Don’t Nod’s workers are facing, in view of the significant number of reports of ill-being and sick leaves.

Tumultuous releases

Jusant was released on October 31, 2023.

A success with critics, the game apparently failed to meet the commercial expectations of the company’s management, who simply shut down its production line and dispersed its team members to other projects. No justification was given for this sudden decision, despite the Social and Economic Committee’s (CSE) insistence.

Jusant’s developers were left in the dark about their future, many without any work to do, for over 2 months.

Banishers, originally scheduled for November 7, 2023, was belatedly postponed to February 13, 2024, prompting strong questions internally, as workers learned of the change of schedule mere 30 minutes before the public announcement.

This postponement comes in a context of crisis for the international job market in the video game sector, with massive layoffs, especially at studios that have been looking for investment in recent years, such as Don’t Nod.

All our teams are understaffed, yet we let go people that were on temportary contracts, internships or work-study apprenticeships. Some are occasionally called back to deal with production emergencies, but always on precarious contracts.

This situation is a danger to the health of the workers, and imposes enormous pressure on teams who are increasingly struggling to meet deadlines.

A silenced union section

Management refuses any means of direct communication between our STJV section and employees. It has even gone back on the meager rights granted in the past when the section was not yet representative (an electoral milestone for unions in France). We have since won the 2023 CSE election by a landslide, making the STJV broadly representative, which should have led to more communication. Specifically, Don’t Nod management considers that a notice board hung at the studio’s office (the minimum effort to fulfill their legal obligations) is enough to inform 300 employees… despite 75% of employees being fully remote.

Since last autumn, we have been trying to obtain the organization of mandatory annual negotiations (“Négociations Annuelles Obligatoires”, or NAO) that are due. Dialogue is impossible, with management going as far as pretending not to understand emails to scupper the NAO, or force our hand.

A scoping meeting was held on January 16, 2024 but did not follow the procedure set out in the French Labor Code, and we couldn’t even bring up the topics to be addressed at the NAO or discuss the timetable of the negotiations. On top of this, we have been denied any means in terms of time, documents or information channels to prepare properly for the negotiations. This is the opposite of « fair and serious » (« loyales et sérieuses », French Labor Code) negotiations.

An obstructed CSE (Social and Economic Committee, or workers’ council)

These concerns have been observed and reported internally to the new CSE, elected in June 2023 under the STJV banner.

However, the CSE itself is in great difficulty due to the management of Don’t Nod, and notes :

  • the gradual disappearance of opportunities for discussion between workers and top management
  • numerous obstacles and obstructions to the exercise of their CSE mandate
  • workers in distress, leading to sick leaves and departures
  • a lack of legal means to inform employees of their rights, and of the situation of their colleagues in other divisions or projects.

Management’s response to this is to bury its head in the sand and mistreat the CSE’s elected officials, refusing to inform them of matters that do concern the CSE, and refusing to be held accountable. As it stands, « social dialogue » is non-existent.

In addition to these difficulties for the CSE, worrying testimonies from many employees have been piling up for months, echoing the survey on quality of life at work carried out in 2023.

Dissonance and stubbornness

In September 2023, Don’t Nod management presented the results of its Quality of Life at Work survey, to which two-thirds of employees responded. It should be noted, though, that the survey contained almost no explicit points on quality of life and working conditions.

It does, however, present overview of various topics, and employees can learn that :

  • 28% say they receive no recognition for their work
  • 30% would discourage acquaintances from applying to Don’t Nod
  • 39% feel the workload is too heavy (or that teams are too small)
  • 50% disapprove of corporate’s strategy

When presenting the survey results, some 6 months later, Don’t Nod management was full of praise for the studio (and therefore for itself) when the figures looked good.

However: the scores were averaged, making it impossible to study results by division or team, thus concealing potential disparities in perception, or even warnings. Faced with the figures, management shaped the results to only talk about what would be interpreted as positive.

Following the results, the CSE questioned management on its intended measures to address the apparent issues: rather than proposing real solutions, the company prefers to explain to its employees that they simply haven’t fully understood its ambitions, and that the company needs to explain itself better in its internal communications. When can we expect a toll-free number to explain Don’t Nod’s complex thinking?

We also note that 90% of survey respondents say they like their colleagues and enjoy working with them. The source of the problems is therefore systemic and structural.

Don’t Nod, but Do Better

The STJV is concerned about the future of the studio, of its productions and working conditions, and notes the absence of social dialogue.

Because Don’t Nod is one of the rare companies to offer full-time remote working and has been able to offer permanent contracts and defend a more progressive editorial line than its competitors, we urge management to take concrete measures to resolve all the problems identified in this press release, to listen to the legitimate concerns of its employees and its union section, so that the company’s values reach the height of its ambitions.

The Don’t Nod STJV union section

On February 14th, Ubisoft France on strike for decent wages

Over the last few weeks the STJV took part in the Mandatory Annual Negotiations on salaries in several Ubisoft entities in France. Despite the unions’ efforts to find an acceptable compromise, negotiations hit a wall. In order to hit arbtirary cost reductions targets, management offered a budget dedicated to raises that would be lower than inflation for the second year in a row.

A badly balanced rewards system

How can we square such disdain with our CEO urging us to « gain in agility and efficiency »? How could we accept such low raises when the company boasts of “an excellent second quarter, well above [our] expectations”, all while paying « tribute to the exceptional level of commitment from the teams »? We’d say that’s a pretty badly balanced rewards system.

Lowering our living standards: not a bug, but a feature

The conclusion is thus: to Ubisoft’s management, our living standards going down isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. A company that still makes a profit, even when its execs have failed repeatedly, choosing to have its employees pay to increase its profits is plainly unacceptable. This is why we call, in association with the other combative unions at Ubisoft, to a strike all day long on wednesday, February 14th, in all the French entities belonging to the Ubisoft group.

If you have any questions on how to join the strike, you may refer to our guide on the topic [in French only for now, sorry!], or contact one of our sections in the various Ubisoft entities.