At Ubisoft, employees called for three days of strike

Several unions called Ubisoft employees on Tuesday, October 15, for a three-day strike, the second this year, as the French video game giant is going through a difficult time with sluggish sales and the postponement of a game. major, against a backdrop of rumors of a takeover of the company.

Several strike pickets are planned in front of the game publisher’s various studios, notably in Paris, Lyon, Montpellier and Annecy, after the group’s announcement in mid-September to impose at least three days of presence in the office per week . “It was the straw that broke the camel’s back”explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Clément Montigny, delegate of the Video Game Workers Union (STJV) at the Montpellier studio.

In an email sent to its employees, management justified this decision by stating that “creativity is stimulated by interpersonal interactions, informal conversations and collaboration around the same table”. “People were hired on the promise of three days of teleworkingargues Clément Montigny, and it calls into question the entire organization of their lives. Potentially, these people must consider leaving the company, which is unacceptable. »

Effort salarial

The unions also ask management “a real salary effort”recalling that a first major strike had mobilized more than 700 employees in February out of the 4,000 that the company has in France. “We have not received a response from management”deplores Pierre-Etienne Marx, STVJ delegate at Ubisoft Paris. “We are going to increase [la pression] until there are real concessions”he warned, hoping this time to reach a thousand strikers.

For its part, Ubisoft says it is examining “how to refine [son modèle] to better balance the benefits of remote and in-office work »after a first meeting with the unions last Tuesday.

This strike comes at a bad time for the French flagship of video games, which has had a series of disappointments for several months. “Ubisoft suffers from a series of releases [de jeux] who do not achieve the expected success »estimates Oscar Lemaire, of the specialized site Ludostrie, citing in particular Skull and Bones and the new episode of Prince of Persia.

At the end of September, its CEO, Yves Guillemot, also admitted that the first sales of Star Wars Outlawsreleased at the end of August, were “weaker than expected”forcing Ubisoft to lower its financial objectives and postpone the release of the next part of its flagship series by three months, Assassin’s Creedto give its teams time to refine it.

A bad patch punished on the financial markets: Ubisoft shares have collapsed by more than 40% since the start of the year, reaching their lowest level in ten years in September. At the beginning of October, the Bloomberg agency also reported a potential share buyback by the Chinese tech giant Tencent, which already owns nearly 10% of the company, and the Guillemot family, the group’s main shareholder, to take the group out of the Stock Exchange.