Why video games will (re)strike on December 12

© STJV /

Remember, last October, employees of the giant Ubisoft chanted their discontent in front of the company's various studios. More than four years after the Covid 19 pandemic, Ubisoft wanted to see its employees back in its offices. The French publisher then announced that it wanted to impose a number of teleworking days granted to its employees, with a forced return to face-to-face work three days a week.

Video game strike this December 12 in France

For several months now, Ubisoft has been in great difficulty, with in particular a Star Wars Outlaws which did not meet expectations and the postponement of Assassin's Creed Shadows (which multiplies the controversies), but it is the video game industry as a whole which is suffering. While layoff plans in the video game industry have attracted a little less interest from the media and the general public recently, the cuts in staff numbers will affect more than 14,500 employees worldwide in 2024. That’s colossal.

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Also, the video game workers' union (STJV) is calling for a national strike across the sector this Thursday, December 12, joining the CGT's call for a major day of mobilization. For the STJV, it is obviously a question of demanding the cessation of all current layoff plans, of respecting social dialogue and the control of video game players.

The STJV is specifically targeting the case of Don't Nod, a Parisian studio that was targeted this fall by a layoff plan involving nearly 70 employees. The latter would only be the result of a management that has constantly refused to listen to workers, to take responsibility and to act accordingly, according to the STJV.

On the Ubisoft side, it was announced this week that the servers for the online game XDefiant will be shutting down as of June 2025. This was accompanied by yet another layoff plan, affecting the entire Ubisoft San Francisco studio (143 employees), as well as the entire Ubisoft Osaka and part of Ubisoft Sydney, which means more than 130 other employees will be laid off.

“We remind you that this call covers the scope of the STJV in the private sector, and therefore concerns any person employed by a publishing, distribution, services and/or creation company for video games regardless of their position or status and regardless of the field of activity of their company (games, consoles, mobile, serious games, VR/AR, game engines, marketing services, streaming, derivative products, esports, online content creation, etc.), as well as all teachers working in private schools in courses related to video games” indicates the STJV.

Please note that this major mobilization desired by the STJV will take place on the same day as the major celebration of video games in the United States, with the now famous Video Game Awards, which have already sparked some controversy…

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