Several of the group’s unions are calling on employees for a three-day strike on Tuesday. A hard blow for the company which has suffered a series of disappointments for several months. Ubisoft’s stock has collapsed by more than 40% since the start of the year.
No more playing at Ubisoft: several unions are calling on employees for a three-day strike on Tuesday, the second this year, while the French video game giant is going through a difficult time with sluggish sales and the postponement of a major game, against a backdrop of rumors of a takeover of the company. Several strike pickets will be held 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 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 teleworking”argues Clément Montigny, “and it calls into question the entire organization of their lives. Potentially, these people must consider leaving the company, which is unacceptable.. 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 – one of the largest mobilizations in the sector.
“We have not had a response from management”deplores Pierre-Etienne Marx, STVJ delegate at Ubisoft Paris. “We will increase (the pressure) 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 (your model) to better balance the benefits of remote and in-office working”after a first meeting with the unions last Tuesday.
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Strikes against face-to-face work, takeover rumors, sales at half mast… The uncertain future of Ubisoft
Ubisoft does not achieve the expected success
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 is suffering from a series of releases (of games) which 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 Outlaws»released 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 Creed»to 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 10 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.
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The emergence of “Ubi-bashing”
But it is not only in the markets that Ubisoft is attacked. On social networks, its games are regularly the target of criticism or mockery, a phenomenon now called «Ubi-bashing». “It’s hard to quantify but the idea that Ubisoft always makes the same games is quite widespread”notes Oscar Lemaire, for whom the “centralized operation brings a form of standardization to all projects”. “Sometimes we have the feeling that certain games we produce would be much better received if they didn’t have the Ubisoft logo on them”recognizes Clément Montigny.
Salvos of criticism which sometimes turn into waves of harassment targeting certain developers, particularly when games highlight heroines (Kay Vess in «Star Wars Outlaws») or characters like the black samurai Yasuke in «Assassin’s Creed Shadows». At the end of September, Yves Guillemot reacted to these “polarized comments” by affirming that Ubisoft remained “an entertainment business”dont “the objective is not to promote a particular agenda”.
