UPDATED: Ubisoft Paris Workers Called To Strike After CEO Announces “Worrying Future” For The Company

Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot and his poor choice of words have again seen himself and Ubisoft in some hot water. Last week, the highly anticipated Skull and Bones received its 6th delay followed by three anonymous Ubisoft devs (current and former) alleging that the company is already reducing staff without official layoffs.

After announcing a worrying future for Ubisoft, Guillemot goes on to urge employees to be “careful and strategic with [their] spending,” which according to French trade union Solidaires Informatique could mean “staff reductions, discreet studio closures, salary cuts, disguised layoffs, etc.”

The Solidaires Informatique publication then goes on to explain how Guillemot has tried to blame the employees for Ubisoft’s failings multiple times, saying: “he expects us to be mobilized, to “give it our all”, to be “as efficient and lean as possible”. These words mean something: overtime, managerial pressure, burnout, etc.”

The Union’s demands are simple:

• an immediate 10% increase for all salaries, regardless of annual increases, to compensate for inflation. With the hundreds of millions of euros obtained from Tencent, there is money in the coffers of the employers.

• the improvement of working conditions, with in particular the implementation of the 4-day week.

• transparency on the evolution of the workforce, both locally and globally.

• [And] a strong commitment against disguised dismissals and a condemnation of abusive managerial policies that push employees to resign.

Due to Guillemot “only understand[ing] the relationship of power,” Solidaires Informatique has asked the employees of Ubisoft Paris to go on strike on Friday, January 27 from 2 PM to 6 PM. Those who would like to read the official call call-to-action can do so here.

UPDATE: CEO Yves Guillmot opened a call with employees by apologizing for his "ball is in your court" comments and changed his words to "our court", but that didn't stop employees from grilling him with questions about blame shifting and trend chasing according to Kotaku.