When deciding which game to buy, “Is it fun?” is no longer the only consideration. Given the current state of the industry, perhaps the more important question is “Do I want to support this company?” Take Ubisoft, for example, and things seem to be unraveling every day. Employees at the company’s Paris headquarters said “enough is enough” after the troubled publisher announced further job cuts this week. they are now make a call In preparation for a three-day strike.

The union representing Ubisoft employees is planning a strike from February 10th to 12th. “Due to the management’s stubborn adherence to its authoritarian approach, we, along with the company’s five trade unions, are calling on Ubisoft employees across France to join this strike,” the Syndicate des travailleuses du jeu video (Video Game Workers’ Union) wrote in an article. statement.

The strike follows a series of aggressive cost-cutting measures at Ubisoft. I just recently closed my studio in Halifax. 16 days after employees form a union. Last week, the company closed its Stockholm studio and Announces additional restructuring efforts all over the world. That too Six games were canceled and seven others postponed..

And earlier this week, Assassin’s Creed publishers Proposed 200 job cuts at Paris headquarters. Under French labor law, the company will organize the layoffs through the country’s Rupture Conventionnelle Collective (RCC) process. This requires mutual agreement between the company and the labor union.

Adding fuel to the fire, Ubisoft will require employees to return to the office five days each week. (The company had previously agreed to allow employees to work from home two days a week.) Although Ubisoft has framed this mandate as being about efficiency and collaboration, it’s easy to see this as a cudgel to further reduce headcount. One Ubisoft developer hinted at something similar while expressing his opposition to the mandate on LinkedIn. said He was suspended without pay for three days as a disciplinary measure.

The unions saw all this and decided it was time to act. “We are calling on management to stop insisting on pinching pennies and worsening working conditions,” wrote the Syndicate des Travailleuses du Jeu Video. “It’s time for real accountability from the company’s management, starting at the top! Without our employees and generous public funding, Ubisoft would never have been able to grow as much as we have. We are Ubisoft, and we are closing the company from February 10th to 12th!”