French game studio Don't Nod has announced plans for a "reorganization project" that could result in the layoff of up to 69 workers. The French union that represents Don't Nod workers, STJV (Le Syndicat des Travailleurs et Travailleuses du Jeu Vidéo), called the plans "the climax of a series of catastrophic decisions," that it detailed in a statement earlier this year.
While the plans are still being negotiated between Don't Nod and STJV, the union has a new statement that denounces them entirely and claims upper management has ignored employee concerns for months.
"Workers’ representatives at Don’t Nod have been raising alarms for more than a year about the company’s economic situation, which is the reason cited to justify the layoffs," it writes.
"With this layoffs plan, they are creating an atmosphere of extreme violence. We are calling on all workers at Don’t Nod to mobilize to save their jobs and working conditions."
The STJV ends the statement by comparing the situation at Don't Nod to Ubisoft, where it recently urged workers to join a three-day strike over a new return to office policy. "Faced with executives who have decided to mock their workers, a social movement like the one currently happening at Ubisoft is necessary," it says. "It is up to us to establish the necessary balance of power to save our jobs. We will not pay for our bosses’ mistakes."
Don't Nod had a 11% year-on-year decline in operating revenue, according to its financial results for the first half of the year.
"Our half-year results for 2024 reflect the economic underperformance of our latest release, despite solid ratings on Metacritic, as well as the accounting impact of the decisions we had to take," CEO Oskar Guilbert said. "The initial performance support measures announced last spring no longer seem sufficient to maintain the company's competitiveness."
Don't Nod's upcoming '90s teen drama (with a hint of Yellowjackets) Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is still set to release its first episode in February 2025. It seems like a lot of people are looking forward to it, including myself, but it's going to be under a lot of pressure to satisfy sales expectations. The quality of the game might not even matter, given Guilbert's reference to recent games underperforming "despite solid ratings."
Our Jusant review called the game "a 2023 standout," and that sentiment seemed to be echoed by other reviewers. Judging by those reviews and the STJV's statement, it sure doesn't seem like Don't Nod's developers are to blame for the company's "economic situation."
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