French developer Spiders is facing allegations from its employees. A group of workers has called for a strike, accusing the studio of mismanagement, low wages, and problems with the development of GreedFall 2.
GreedFall II: The Dying World
UPDATE (August 29): Spiders called the accusations “false and even defamatory,” telling Insider Gaming that they “in no way reflect the reality of the day-to-day working life of the company’s employees and are an attack on the reputation of the studio, whose teams are fully mobilized to produce quality games and enthusiastically ensure the Early Access release of GreedFall 2.” The studio’s management plans to meet with a deligation of employees by the end of the week.
Original article (August 28): An open letter was published by the Syndicat des Travailleurs du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) union on the behalf of 44 Spiders employees (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz). This is almost a half of the company’s total workforce of 95 people.
There was supposed to be a meeting with Spiders COO Anne Devouassoux, who joined the company in May 2023, to discuss the issues. However, the management didn’t come at the appointed time.
“Today, it is with regret that we speak out publicly, in the hope that this will finally push management to act in the best interests of employees and the company,” the statement reads, with employees saying that Spiders also ignored the previous letter on January 19 and negotiations on wages and working conditions.
On September 2, workers will go on a week-long strike in the front of the studio’s office and online on a special Minecraft server.
Here are some of the issues highlighted in the letter:
- Low wages — workers cite growing instability, saying that it is unclear whether salaries will be increased in the next few years (women employees’ wages are also reported to be “considerably lower” than men’s);
- Growing turnover — many veteran developers have left the studio, with management not making enough of an effort to retain experienced staff or hire new talents;
- Mismanagement — the structure of the company, which has tripled in size over the past three years, hasn’t evolved enough to adapt to new parallel production cycles;
- Lack of transparency — employees have no information about key decisions and the company’s strategy, budgets, working conditions, financial health, and plans;
- Refusal to accept collective action and worker representation — management reportedly “challenge and belittle the legitimacy of staff representatives and collective expression in any shape or form, while also refusing to consult workers themselves.”
In addition, Spiders staff also cite the difficulties with the production on GreedFall 2 as one of the main issues. According to the letter, this resulted in “widespread anxiety and a loss of interest among employees.”
The development of GreedFall 2 is marked by communication problems regarding its creative direction, which reportedly “led to many unplanned and unbudgeted changes.” Many experienced developers have already left Spiders during the production, resulting in issues with knowledge sharing, and other employees consider quitting after the launch.
GreedFall II: The Dying World, a sequel to the studio’s 2019 action RPG, is expected to launch in Early Access on September 24. However, workers claim that the EA release hasn’t been originally planned. This led to delays and work overload.
“The production is underwater, accumulating burnouts and other psycho-social risk factors, and the workers fear they won’t be able to be proud of their work when the game is released,” Spiders employees said, adding that it would be difficult to launch version 1.0 less than a year after its Early Access release “as there is so much left to do.”
Founded in 2008, Spiders is a French studio known for games like Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper, The Technomancer, Gray Matter, and Steelrising. In 2019, publisher Nacon (then Bigben Interactive) acquired the studio for an undisclosed sum. The company is still headed by its co-founder and lead writer Jehanne Rousseau.