Developers at Greedfall and Technomancer studio Spiders are striking next week on Monday, September 2 and Tuesday, September 3.
In a document published by French game dev union STJV (spotted by GamesIndustry), the staff alleged years of mismanagement. 44 employees, or nearly half of Spiders’ 95-person team, signed a letter to “finally push management to act in the best interests of employees and the company.”
The 20-page document covers several topics, chiefly “growing instability.” Staff allege management refused to let staff work from home or accommodate needs in any fashion, last-minute changes to plans made well in advance, and “lower on average” wages compared to the rest of France’s game industry.
“How will we be able to keep on living in the Paris area while still working at Spiders?” the document asks. “We are [unable] to know where we’ll be able to live in the future, nor how we’ll face life events, even those planned in advance.”
It further claimed Spiders’ organization has changed “little, if at all” in reflection of its near-100 person headcount. As a result, decisions are rarely ironclad, work can be easily “invalidated,” and staff feel projects “can’t seem to figure out where they’re going.”
“We’re getting bogged down in complicated productions. […] What’s at stake is the smooth running of the company and the health of its employees, whose creative and technical potential is limited by unsuitable and disorganized processes.”
Spiders’ yearslong issues are catching up with it
Spiders’ documents claims its problems have greatly affected work on Greedfall 2 most of all. Production is said to have led to “burnouts” and several departures mid or post-development.
Factors for development going “underwater” include an unplanned (and “painful”) Early Access launch and pipeline problems built on that of previous projects. At one point, an alleged investigation was even launched by French authorities.
Amidst all this, Spiders says upper management has been non-responsive or outright hostile to requests for change. During the investigation, COO Anne Devouassoux allegedly “forcibly demanded” (and was refused) that authorities give her the answers staff offered.
Management has also reportedly accused elected representatives of trying to “destabilize” Greedfall 2’s creative direction. Overall, Spiders’ leaders have been said to “show great difficulty in reassessing itself, and denies workers’ ability to make their voices heard.”
After months of stalled negotiations, Spiders staff hopes the strike on September 2 and 3 “gets us out of this dead end” and secures better conditions for current and future staff.
Those conditions include a minimum of three days per week of working from home, clear pay scales and job progression schemes, and wage increases.
During the two-day strike, Spiders encouraged other French developers, journalists, and political actors to join them. It’ll also be virtually striking in a Minecraft server made for the event.
You can read Spiders’ full document on its mismanagement allegations here.
