According to Solidaires Informatique, a French workers’ union, there have been cases of 14-hour shifts being forced to do in the last year…

The NME reported that Solidaires Informatique had accused the Paris studio of Ubisoft of mismanaging the development of its latest, and somehow still annual, Just Dance title. According to the union, 10% of the developers of the game in question (Just Dance 2023) have been experiencing symptoms of burnout over the last year, as they had to change engines during the turbulent development of the game 11 months before release, and had to hire more people to reduce the burden on employees…

One employee said that during the game’s development, he had 13-hour days, while some QA (quality assurance) testers worked 14 or more hours a day. In daily meetings, several employees were openly encouraged to work overtime. Let’s not forget that the Ubisoft team in Paris also worked on Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, in addition to Just Dance 2023. Both games were down in sales (Ubisoft admitted as much in January), and as a result, the French publisher has canceled three games that had yet to be announced, and they are implementing a cost-cutting strategy for two years. (Is that why they use AI for writing tasks…?)

Following the announcement, Solidaires Informatique organized a half-day strike, with over 40 people taking part (about 1/6 of the workforce). The union added that further demonstrations will be “at key moments in the games’ production.” Add to this the fact that Ubisoft Montpellier, which is supposedly still making Beyond Good & Evil 2, is under investigation by the labor organization for unprecedented burnout and requests for extended sick leave. The situation at Ubisoft seems dire…

“Given the length of the development cycle with Beyond Good & Evil 2, the Montpellier development team is undergoing well-being assessments through a third party for preventative measures and to evaluate where additional support may be needed,” a spokesperson for the French publisher said at the time. Who believes that?

Source: Gamesindustry