Workers At Ubisoft Paris Accuse Company Of Crunch Culture
Workers at developer Ubisoft Paris recently accused the company of promoting crunch culture, speaking to the media by way of Solidaires Informatique. According to the union, some ten percent of employees working on the most recent Just Dance reported suffering from a form of burnout. The organization also added that monthly rates of sick leave have been sharply rising.
The publication NME investigated the claims and spoke with an employee at the company under condition of anonymity who confirmed the allegations. According to the source in question, there have been widespread issues with pre-production, something which has been described as a “mess.” Workers at Ubisoft Paris were for example asked to change the Just Dance engine just 11 months before launch, while being pressured to incorporate ideas that "had to be considered at all costs," despite the team already being “underwater.” The source called this both "morally and physically exhausting" for workers.
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Several people at the company alleged they were dealing with "late" strategic decisions like Ubisoft Paris delaying to choose an engine until there were only nine months of production left in the process. They also claimed the studio promised not to push paid overtime, but this rule appears to have been rarely upheld, the practice becoming a frequent occurrence, many quality assurance testers working from well before noon until after midnight. “During daily meetings, some employees were explicitly encouraged to work overtime,” a source at the company said. “The message was clear: make overtime.”
The problems reportedly came from demands made at the corporate level. According to a source who spoke to
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