Another eventful week at the French video game giant Ubisoft: a three-day strike begins Tuesday to protest against the virtual disappearance of teleworking and a new savings plan, two days before the publication of its quarterly results.
Entangled in financial difficulties and weighed down by several lackluster game launches in recent years, the group’s shares have collapsed by almost 95% in five years on the markets.
Subject to several economic plans, Ubisoft has closed several of its studios abroad, notably in San Francisco (United States), Osaka (Japan), Leamington (United Kingdom), Stockholm (Sweden) and Halifax.
He also led restructuring within studios in Abu Dhabi, Finland and Sweden.
The French number 1, which has around 17,000 employees worldwide, has let go of more than 3,000 employees in recent years.
To relaunch itself, Ubisoft had to put an end to the development of six games, including the highly anticipated remake of “Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”, and postponed the release of seven others.
Although it expects a slightly better third quarter than expected, the publisher nevertheless forecasts an operational loss of one billion euros for its annual financial year, which ends at the end of March.
The announcement on January 21 of a new internal organization and an austerity cure of 200 million euros over two years blew into the embers of the social protest which had already agitated the group in 2024 around a reduction in teleworking and salary conditions.
From now on, Ubisoft wants to return to five days of face-to-face work per week, accompanied by an annual teleworking quota.
“There is anger” among the group’s approximately 3,800 employees in France, assures AFP Pierre-Etienne Marx, member of the Video Game Workers’ Union (STJV).
From Tuesday, strike pickets will be organized in the morning in front of the publisher’s studios in Paris as well as in the provinces. The unions are calling for a rally in front of the group’s headquarters in the afternoon in Saint-Mandé in the Paris suburbs.
Other Ubisoft studios around the world could join the movement, according to the unions, and a rally is also planned in front of that of Milan (Italy).
Disastrous choice
“The people at the head of the company have made disastrous industrial choices,” and “we no longer have confidence in them,” laments Mr. Marx.
He hopes for a movement at least as sustained as the previous ones, which had mobilized several hundred people, according to the unions.
As a sign of protest, several employees of Ubisoft’s Parisian studio left their jobs at the beginning of February during a visit by CEO Yves Guillemot, a union representative told AFP.
The concern is all the greater as the group announced at the end of January a proposed voluntary departure plan for 200 people at Ubisoft headquarters, which has 1,100 employees.
“This is potentially the prelude to other social plans,” worries a delegate from the CGT union, who affirms that the workforce at Ubisoft HQ has already fallen by 10% in two years.
For its part, management ensures that the group’s new operating model will make it possible to be more competitive.
From April, five structures, called “creative houses”, will bring together half of Ubisoft’s studios by specialty, while the other half will serve as support for the various projects. The technological, production and marketing and distribution teams will be pooled.
“We are aware that these developments, particularly in terms of work organization, provoke strong reactions,” Ubisoft told AFP on Monday.
