Greedfall 2 Developers Are Going on Strike, Allege Studio Management Treats Workers Like ‘Galley Slaves’
The developers of upcoming fantasy role-playing game Greedfall 2 have announced plans to strike in protest of management just a few weeks before the game comes out.
Paris-based studio Spiders, which also developed Steelrising and The Technomancer, published an open letter signed by 44 of the 95 staff to studio management including CEO Anne Devouassoux. Spiders is wholly owned by publisher Nacon, which IGN has asked for comment.
The open letter details “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.”
Specifically on Greedfall 2, workers allege it has suffered a “difficult” production and there is “widespread anxiety and a loss of interest among employees.” The staff also said they have suffered significant crunch working on the game.
“For many, it translates into a fear of releasing a disappointing game at the end and/or a feeling of shame over their own work,” the workers said. “For some, it's the last straw that pushes them to look for work elsewhere.”
Elsewhere in the document, the workers claimed that Greedfall 2's budget “was reworked multiple times and its early access release postponed several times.”
“Management gives the impression of treating us like galley slaves in the hold of a ship, rowing on and on without ever knowing either the route or the destination of their journey,” the workers said. “Spiders feels like a ship sailing with no one at the helm.”
Greedfall 2 currently has an early access release date of September 24, 2024, with a plan to release the game in full less than a year later. According to staff, that seems unlikely.
“The early access
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