To hear French game dev union STJV tell it, workers at Spiders – the studio behind flawed but consistently-ambitious role-playing games like Greedfall, Steelrising, and The Technomancer – are not having a good time right now. Today the union published an open letter to management alleging a litany of deal-breaking issues at the company, which has been signed by 44 out of 95 Spiders staffers. Next week the studio will go on strike – (partially) in Minecraft.
STJV says that Spiders workers previously went on strike in January, but conditions within the studio continued to deteriorate. The letter covers “several” years’ worth of issues, including “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, [and] refusal to acknowledge worker representation and blocked negotiations.”
STJV added: “We had demanded that the head of the company receive a delegation of Spiders’ workers to discuss all these points. She accepted, the delegation came to a meeting on August 27, and then waited in vain for the management to come, which it never did.”
As a result, Spiders workers are going on strike starting on September 2. They plan to picket outside the company’s offices in Paris and – in what I believe is a first for this kind of thing – also in Minecraft.
“In particular, we will be organizing pickets on September 2 and 3 in front of the company’s offices and online on a Minecraft server created for the occasion,” STJV wrote. “We are inviting our relatives, friends, supporters, workers in the industry in general, journalists, and political actors to join us at the pickets.”
Aftermath will of course be on the scene bringing you all the latest updates. In Minecraft, at least.
Update 8/29/24: In a statement to Aftermath, Spiders management deemed STJV's remarks "false and even defamatory" and said they "in no way reflect the reality of the day-to-day working life of the company's employees."
"Spiders' management is committed to open and constructive social dialogue," reads the statement. "After unsuccessful attempts over the last few days to meet with a delegation of employees, they have proposed a meeting again by the end of the week."
Aftermath still plans to cover the strike in Minecraft, if it takes place. As of now, everything hinges on a meeting between workers and management, which will take place on Friday.
"Considering the current situation, workers are waiting to hear what the head of the company has to say at Friday morning's meeting," a representative for the Spiders workers' action committee told Aftermath.
Thanks to Aftermath subscriber Kaile Hultner for tipping us off about this one! If you'd like to join our Discord, you can do so by subscribing here.
