Ubisoft: Three Days of Strike Declared, What's Happening Within the Studio ?

Several union organizations are calling on Ubisoft employees to go on strike starting Tuesday, October 15.

Will Ubisoft employees stop working starting Tuesday, October 15? ? This is in any case the wish expressed by several internal members of the video game studio and relayed by several unions specialized, or not, in video games.

The cause: recent announcements by Ubisoft management to end complete teleworking within the company and return to the office for at least three days a week. An announcement made in mid-September through an email sent to all of the studio's employees. A turnaround that has not gone down well with several Ubisoft employees who denounce a decision that is “arbitrary” and “experienced as a punishment”.

Especially since a significant number of Ubisoft employees are still working remotely, particularly at the Saint-Mandé headquarters in Val-de-Marne, where nearly 14% of employees are still working remotely all week. A phenomenon that has become more widespread during the Covid-19 health crisis, with several employees having moved and taken advantage of partial or complete teleworking arrangements to change location and settle elsewhere.

Contacted by FranceInfo, Marc Rutschlé, union representative for Solidaires informatique, spoke about the changes announced by Ubisoft management: “This is a decision that is quite unfair. We are going back on a right that employees have recently acquired. In the meantime, we have colleagues who have moved, who have bought houses… How will they manage when it comes to coming back three days a week? ? We also have colleagues who are teleworking for health reasons. There are a thousand reasons and they are all good."

This is the second time in a year that Ubisoft has faced a strike by its employees after 700 employees gathered last February to demand better pay conditions. Contacted by several media outlets on the subject, Ubisoft did not respond to press requests.

Ubisoft, a studio in full desert crossing

Ubisoft is a giant in the video game industry. The company, with iconic licenses such as “Rayman” or “Assassin's Creed”, has nevertheless been going through a rather difficult period in recent years. Despite employing nearly 20,000 people spread across 45 different studios, the giant must face several difficulties internally and in the sales of its latest games.

Since the toxic management scandal and sexual harassment cases revealed in 2021 by Libération, the company has been at the heart of regular internal conflicts.

On the sales side, things are not going much better. Ubisoft's latest big releases have not met with the studio esteemed including the latest “Star Wars: Outlaws” whose disappointing sales caused the company to plummet on the stock market and forced Ubisoft to postpone the next “Assassin's Creed: Shadows” which will now be released in 2025.

Recently, the media Bloomberg also revealed that the company was at the heart of several takeover rumors. Information quickly denied and put into context by several media outlets and specialist journalists. According to the latter, the Guillemot family (founders and owners of the company) are primarily seeking to have shares in the company bought back from the Chinese giant Tencent in order to exit the stock market and regain more freedom in the firm's future projects.