"It is out of the question to let a boss run rampant" - Ubisoft workers strike against "disastrous" cutbacks

Publisher's RTO announcement decried arsenic effort to "destroy our moving conditions"

Ubisoft’s bloodbath of crippled cancellations and restructuring yesterday has attracted the expected fiery effect from unionised workers, with the French crippled manufacture national Solidaires Informatique calling a half-day onslaught today. Cost-cutting and imaginable layoffs aside, the strikers are protesting against Ubisoft’s determination to mandate a afloat instrumentality to office, with workers fixed an yearly allowance of enactment from location days alternatively - thing a steadfast enforcement has justified arsenic a determination “to heighten corporate efficiency” and “the consciousness of belonging”.

Ubisoft management’s latest bout of corpobutchery has seen them bin disconnected six games, including the Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time remake, hold 7 others, and corroborate the closure of Ubisoft Stockholm.

More layoffs volition follow, though Ubisoft person yet to stock immoderate precise numbers. It’s each portion of the company’s Age of Sigmar-esque translation into a postulation of “Creative Houses” with dense concern from Tencent, dedicated to a smaller fig of hopefully better-selling games – successful particular, unfastened satellite and unrecorded work projects, with generative AI dutifully touted arsenic a means of boosting production.

As portion of this transition, Ubisoft precocious shuttered Ubisoft Halifax (a fewer weeks aft the workplace voted to unionise – nary connection, they insist) and announced layoffs astatine Tom Clancy’s The Division developers Massive.

In a statement, Solidaires Informatique picture today’s onslaught arsenic "an archetypal effect to the absurdity of absorption decisions”, with much enactment astir apt to follow. "It is retired of the question to fto a brag tally rampant and destruct our moving conditions,” they write, addressing Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. “Perhaps helium needs to beryllium reminded that it is his employees who marque the games." The national are besides calling for “decent wage rises this year” and “maintaining and extending the teleworking conditions”.

RTO policies are often the absorption of national action. In October 2024, 700 Ubisoft unit went connected onslaught implicit a request to enactment in-office 3 days a week.

Detractors of distant moving reason that it’s little businesslike and hinders teamwork. As Ubisoft’s elder vice-president of workplace operations Marie-Sophie de Waubert told GamesIndustry yesterday, “the 1 and lone nonsubjective [for the caller RTO policy] is to heighten corporate efficiency, to thrust the dynamics, the creativity, the consciousness of belonging.”

Advocates for distant moving reason that it doesn’t materially impact however overmuch workers contribute, and that it tin beryllium captious for radical with disabilities, household commitments and different applicable challenges that marque commuting oregon sharing bureau abstraction unfeasible. When EA implemented a partial instrumentality to the bureau successful May past year, anonymous unit offered childcare, aesculapian conditions, and agelong commutes arsenic reasons for needing an exemption from in-office work.

Advocates for distant moving besides reason that forbidding hybrid oregon afloat remote-working is simply a “soft layoff” strategy, since immoderate distant workers whitethorn person nary prime but to determination on. That was the assertion levelled astatine Microsoft past September, erstwhile they imposed a instrumentality to the bureau pursuing thousands of layoffs.

I americium precise overmuch Team Homeworking, inasmuch arsenic I couldn’t bash this occupation if I had to enactment in-office 9-5. In general, I deliberation RTO mandates bespeak an unexamined content among managers that radical go shirkers and layabouts unless they're kept firmly wrong the panopticon.

Arguments proceed astir RTO beyond Ubisoft. Rockstar’s caller implementation of RTO successful the sanction of “quality and polish” is 1 of the reasons immoderate GTA 6 workers chose to unionise, soon earlier Rockstar laid disconnected a fig of workers for “gross misconduct”, successful what British unions person called a lawsuit of “union-busting”.