Too much, that’s too much. This Thursday, February 13, 2025, the French video game industry is called upon to strike. The working conditions, deemed inadmissible, are at the heart of these historical claims.
This is the first time that the French video game industry has had a national strike. This Thursday, February 13, 2025, the date on which the tricolor video game sector revolts, says a lot about the working conditions of the developers. The Syndicate of video game workers (STJV), which initiated the movement, called on all the actors to demonstrate to make their rights heard.
Nine major cities of Francenamely Paris, Lille, Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Angoulême, Annecy, Montpellier and Lyon, are called upon to organize gatherings. On the program, many claims will be pronounced, in particular “Maintaining jobs, cancellation of layoffs and responsible for decision -makers who must sacrifice themselves as a priority when their business is in difficulty”specifies the account of the STJV on X, adding to another post: “We have all experienced the same atrocities in our industry”.
A sector for a long time in crisis
The events of this Thursday, February 13, intend to enlighten the growing discomfort in the video game sector. A discomfort that does not date from yesterday, as the famous French Ubisoft studio perfectly illustrates, which is the source of many licenses like Far cry,, Assassin’s Creed or Just Dance. Many setbacks punctuated the year 2024, the company having closed several studios, licensed a few hundred employees, ended one of its games and suffered several days of strike. Smoking setbacks that the players were many to wonder if Ubisoft would not put the key under the door.
If Ubisoft is one of the most publicized French video game studios, anger has spread in all 15,000 employees within France. An indignation which is explained by mass layoffs, disastrous working conditions as well as the lack of transparency on the operation and finances of companies. The STJV has recently delivered numerous anonymous testimonies, which illustrate toxicity and sexism problems within the teams.
“Our wages are not at all up to the French averages”says Vincent Cambedouzou, Stjv union representative at Ubisoft Paris, at the microphone of Radio France. “The average age of people working in video games does not increase. Everyone goes after a few years, a little jaded, disenchanted to have thought of being able to do a good job, and go into Saying: in the end, what we did was really not terrible, did not like the players, and I understand them “. In 2024, 15,000 layoffs shook the video game industries worldwide: a record.
Video games, the disillusionment sector
However, a few years ago, the video game industries still enjoyed a very radiant sun. Thanks to years COVID-19who entrenched the populations at home, the sales of video games were in good shape. With growth of 11.3% compared to 2019, 2020 made it possible to achieve a record turnover of 5.3 billion euros, according to statistics from the Union of Leisure Software Publishers (SELL).
After the records due to the confinements, the post-Cavid years presented themselves as a real disillusionment. For almost two years, studios have experienced a period of reflux, shaken by layoffs and strikes. The turnover, in pain, explains the deep crisis that has taken hold of the video game industry. Between too low wages, deleterious atmosphere, overloaded time and intense pressure, the national strike of February 13 is “first, and it is unprecedented historically in our industry“, According to Vincent Cambedouzou, who hopes to change the situation.