Ubisoft Paris is one of the companies that makes Just Dance games. Two months ago, the company was hit with a work stoppage protesting better working conditions and against the CEO of the entire company, Yves Guillemot.
Guillemot placed the blame on the workers to correct the company's poor financial performance, which he later had to apologize.
Following interviews with the workers themselves through the Solidaires Informatique union and firsthand from one of the anonymous employees, an NME article reveals more information about Just Dance workers at Ubisoft Paris.
At Ubisoft Paris, crunch, overtime is the norm, and poor planning is the norm.
These testimonials paint a picture of Ubisoft Paris as a "culture of the crunch," or rather, as a culture that seeks to normalize paid overtime and make it a norm, without giving the option of making it voluntary.
And this happens for a poor plan from above: Unrealistic or unattainable deadlines, such as changing the engine for Just Dance 2023 eleven months before it was released, or demanding concepts that "should be considered without exception, even if they were swimming down the bay."
"Either they have no choice but to do the impossible, or they force us to change everything."
Ubisoft Paris employees provided testimonials, mostly working on Just Dance, a popular annual series, which saw 13-hour shifts, which resulted in numerous requests for sick leave that even alerted the French authorities.
All projects at this company's headquarters have been hit by a shortage, including Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, Watch Dogs and Beyond Good and Evil 2, and it suggests a conflict between the Ubisoft Paris division and the company's own headquarters, which demands a new Just Dance game every Christmas, no matter what.
Attempts to alter the culture and cut overtime came to a halt, yet this employee finishes on a good note, highlighting the team's unity and their dedication to the games they produce and their supporters, as well as enhancements following the appointment of Marie-Sophie de Waubert.
