Greedfall 2 developers call a strike over working conditions, lack of gender equality and parity, and “global mismanagement”
“Spiders feels like a ship sailing with no one at the helm.”
Update: This evening, we received the following "communication from the Spiders studio":
Paris, 28th August 2024 – The Union of Video Game Workers (Syndicat des Travailleurs (ses) du Jeu Vidéo) has publicly relayed allegations concerning the working environment at Spiders. The false and even defamatory accusations made by the STJV in no way reflect the reality of the day-to-day working life of the company's employees and are an attack on the reputation of the studio, whose teams are fully mobilized to produce quality games and enthusiastically ensure the Early Access release of GreedFall 2.Spiders' management is committed to open and constructive social dialogue. After unsuccessful attempts over the last few days to meet with a delegation of employees, they have proposed a meeting again by the end of the week.
Spiders' employees are the heart of the studio, and we are determined to maintain an inclusive and stimulating working environment in which every talent can flourish and of which we can all be proud.
The email was signed by Consulting Director Caroline Richard and Associate Director Laurence Tovi.
Original article continues below:
Workers at Nacon-owned Greedfall 2 studio Spiders have penned an open letter “to their employer” detailing grievances over a period of several years, and called for a strike in response to “management’s continued refusal” to take their concerns seriously. 44 of Spider’s 95 workers have signed the document, made public through French union Stjv in the hope that it “will finally push management to act in the best interests of employees and the company.”
This document covers several years of known problems, which have been greatly amplified over the past year with the arrival of the current head of the company: instability, opposition to anticipating problems and securing working conditions, global mismanagement, turnover and recruitment problems, unacceptable delays in achieving gender equality and parity, important lack of transparency, denial of problems, refusal to acknowledge worker representation and blocked negotiations.
The open letter is the second that unhappy Spiders employees have penned, following an earlier document and related strike on January 19. “Since then,” the workers in question write, “new negotiations have begun on wages, and conditions in the studio have continued to deteriorate.”
The document itself consists of 20 pages outlining the issues, and ends with a list of demands “to secure our lives, our careers and the company in the short and long term.” The listed issues include “a blatant lack of transparency on all aspects of the company”, “A difficult production cycle for Greedfall 2”, and “Management's adamant refusal to acknowledge collective action”.
Their demands, broadly, are greater transparency and worker representation, an end to an “authoritarian and ineffective centralization of power”, greater freedom to work from home, wage increases commensurate with other Nacon studios, and “immediate rectification of all wage discrimination against women and non-binary people”.
The document also features several cartoons featuring characters from Spiders’ games.
“In light of management’s continued refusal to discuss, take the problems raised seriously and act to rectify them”, Spiders staff are calling for a strike to take place next week, starting September 2. “In particular, we will be organising pickets on September 2 and 3 in front of the company’s offices and online on a Minecraft server created for the occasion.”
We’ve had some positive news recently on the labour front. In the same week last month, both Bethesda Game Studios and World of Warcraft workers formed wall-to-wall unions. Solidarité, Spiders.