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Ubisoft : The "big" exodus

Ryzer

Prophet
Vatnik
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May 1, 2020
Messages
5,218
It's incline time :incline:
https://www.axios.com/ubisoft-assas...ion-aef86e61-75a8-4446-8ad6-f2c58bd0b730.html

Colleagues across Ubisoft have names for the procession of developers who have departed over the past 18 months: "the great exodus" and "the cut artery."

Driving the news: The wave of resignations impacting scores of industries has come for the video game sector this year, and it's been felt acutely at the massive Ubisoft.

  • Across the company's global network of studios, which at 20,000-plus employees is one of gaming's largest workforces, many developers have decided it's time to quit.
  • And many of their colleagues describe a flow of goodbyes that they've never seen before.
Signs of the exits are abundant.

  • Top-name talent is leaving, with at least five of the top 25-credited people from the company's biggest 2021 game, Far Cry 6, already gone. Twelve of the top 50 from last year's biggest Ubisoft release, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, have left too. (A 13th recently returned.)
  • Also out are midlevel and lower-level workers as headcounts drop, particularly in Ubisoft's large and normally growing Canadian studios. LinkedIn shows Ubisoft's Montreal and Toronto studios each down at least 60 total workers in the last six months.
  • Two current developers tell Axios the departures have stalled or slowed projects.
  • One developer recently said a colleague currently at Ubisoft contacted them to solve an issue with a game, because no one was still there who knew the system.
Interviews with a dozen current and former Ubisoft developers cite a range of factors for the departures, including low pay, an abundance of competitive opportunities, frustration at the company's creative direction, and unease at Ubisoft's handling of a workplace misconduct scandal that flared in mid-2020.

  • One developer with more than a decade of experience at Ubisoft before recently leaving said the company is "an easy target for recruiters," given the company's myriad issues.
  • Said another now-former Ubisoft worker who was disappointed by directives from the company's Paris HQ: "There's something about management and creative scraping by with the bare minimum that really turned me away."
  • These game makers, like others who spoke to Axios for this story, asked not to be identified out of concern for jeopardizing their careers or those of colleagues still at Ubisoft.
  • Many spoke fondly of much of their time at the company, and one said they'd even consider returning, but the past year and a half was a breaking point.

Ubisoft's handling of misconduct scandals — a wave of #MeToo allegations that led to the departure of several powerful men at the company — have weighed on workers who have left and on many still at the company.

  • Over the summer, 1,000 current and former employees signed a letter saying Ubisoft hadn't done enough to reform its culture, and Grant has said the company recognizes it needs to engender more trust from its workforce that it's committed to reform.
  • "I think abuse and toxicity are contributing factors but not deciding ones for most," a current Ubisoft developer said of why colleagues were bailing. But, they added, "Women and people of color experience them as deciding factors."

Oh no! :
What's next: Last week, Ubisoft announced intentions to revive its Splinter Cell franchise, years before it would normally even hint at a new installment of any of its top series.

  • Come work at Ubisoft Toronto to make a new Splinter Cell, the company beckoned. Along with that entreaty, there are dozens of job listings for programmers and lots of senior staff.
:flamesaw:
 

OSK

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The software developers should leave the industry altogether. They'd immediately see better pay and fewer working hours.
 

Falksi

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  • One developer recently said a colleague currently at Ubisoft contacted them to solve an issue with a game, because no one was still there who knew the system.
1Vd3g7M.gif
 

Ghulgothas

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This just in; Ubisoft announces sudden Rayman revival in no way meant to lead public discourse away from gossiping about their staff leaving.

And if that doesn't work, there's always Beyond Good and Ev- oh wait.
 
Last edited:

Melcar

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Messages
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Merida, again
  • One developer recently said a colleague currently at Ubisoft contacted them to solve an issue with a game, because no one was still there who knew the system.
1Vd3g7M.gif

Happens very often in certain industries. The company relies on some obscure and/or old software or machine and the new generation of employees has no idea how to handle it.
 

Falksi

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Messages
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Nottingham
  • One developer recently said a colleague currently at Ubisoft contacted them to solve an issue with a game, because no one was still there who knew the system.
1Vd3g7M.gif

Happens very often in certain industries. The company relies on some obscure and/or old software or machine and the new generation of employees has no idea how to handle it.

Very true.

But, with that said......

1Vd3g7M.gif
1Vd3g7M.gif
1Vd3g7M.gif
 
Last edited:

Tacgnol

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Happens very often in certain industries. The company relies on some obscure and/or old software or machine and the new generation of employees has no idea how to handle it.

It can be super lucrative. If an ex-employer asks you for assistance with some legacy software you have all the power to dictate terms.

You can charge them a large hourly rate for consultancy for one.
 

Falksi

Arcane
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The people leaving are the ones who made it shit. Companies aren't a living entity.

True, but the organizational structure and other workers is what determines the influence they have.

Wherever they go, they now join as newfags. And, even in senior positions, newfags get noobified.
 

cretin

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Anyone involved in the games industry is pretty much the most cucked person you've ever met. Talented people with polished skillsets being convinced to work for way less than they are actually worth, and get treated like shit, because of "passion", and being involved in the super important culture of making toys for adults, LOL.
 

Infinitron

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This might be hyped up fake drama. Ubisoft Montreal is a huge huge studio, a feeder for the entire gaming industry. People are going to be rising up through the ranks and leaving for greener pastures constantly.
 
Last edited:
Joined
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Codex Year of the Donut
This might be hyped up fake drama. Ubisoft Montreal is a huge huge studio, a feeder for the entire gaming industry. People are going to be rising up and leaving for greener pastures constantly.
In before top executives at ubisoft get accused of sexual harassment then someone begins attempting to unionize the employees.
 

Mortmal

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Messages
9,158
This might be hyped up fake drama. Ubisoft Montreal is a huge huge studio, a feeder for the entire gaming industry. People are going to be rising up and leaving for greener pastures constantly.

Ubisoft stock lost 44.62% since january , was wondering why especially during covid pandemia, now it's obvious. Fake drama i dont think so, we just only learn about it now.It's hard to find something as catastrophic this year where pretty much every thing gains 25%.
 

lycanwarrior

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Jan 1, 2021
Messages
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This might be hyped up fake drama. Ubisoft Montreal is a huge huge studio, a feeder for the entire gaming industry. People are going to be rising up and leaving for greener pastures constantly.

Ubisoft stock lost 44.62% since january , was wondering why especially during covid pandemia, now it's obvious. Fake drama i dont think so, we just only learn about it now.It's hard to find something as catastrophic this year where pretty much every thing gains 25%.

Not really, a lot of other gaming companies are off their stock market highs as well:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/c.../?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
 

Ravielsk

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Messages
1,514
Reading stuff like this reminds of the time I watched Hotel Hell with Gordon Ramsay. Because it seems to be exact same problem of not understanding that managing a business is about more than just having a green number in the accounting software. Seriously, I encourage you to watch something like Hotel Hell or Kitchen Nightmares on Youtube. About 80% of the episodes are entirely about Gordon explaining the absolute brain dead basics of business to a supposed big dick owner who knows better than everyone else and just happens to be losing 30k on his little restaurant every month. Were are talking here basic sanitation like: clean your fridge, season the meat, clean the dining area etc.

Its a shockingly common problem across the board in all industries, not just in the videogame industry. From my personal experience in the last 20 or so years there was a dramatic shift in how managers are trained to view their employees and it was a shift for the worse. It used to be common practice to keep good relationships with your crew because ultimately they are the ones keeping your business afloat. However recently that shifted towards viewing them as "legal thieves" and a "necessary evil".
I remember especially how when they were explaining to us the concept of financial quadrants the guy explaining it was effectively taking a dump on literary everyone except investors. Basically the explanation was that investors are driving the economy, the world and everything while everyone else is just a rube or a borderline parasite. Great quotes such as the "employees are not taking on any real risk" or "manufacturers are ultimately unimportant in the great scheme of things" were dropping left and right during those seminars. The disconnect with reality was absolutely insane but to get back on topic it perfectly mirrored how the videogame industry is managed these days and what is currently happening at Ubisoft and Activision.

The functional and pragmatic human element was effectively replaced with "we can buy our way out of everything". They just assume that there are endless hordes of dumb affable clowns that will give their 110% for the bare minimum who are also simultaneously highly competent creative people, so why bother keeping anyone when you can immediately replace them with a borderline clone? Hell, why bother even pleasing your audience when you can just market(a.k.a buy) yourself a new one? The suits know so little about the actual nitty-gritty of their own industries that a random hobo would not do a worse job and right now it seems that all these decades of shit are finally catching up to them.
 
Joined
Aug 10, 2012
Messages
5,870
Reading stuff like this reminds of the time I watched Hotel Hell with Gordon Ramsay. Because it seems to be exact same problem of not understanding that managing a business is about more than just having a green number in the accounting software. Seriously, I encourage you to watch something like Hotel Hell or Kitchen Nightmares on Youtube. About 80% of the episodes are entirely about Gordon explaining the absolute brain dead basics of business to a supposed big dick owner who knows better than everyone else and just happens to be losing 30k on his little restaurant every month. Were are talking here basic sanitation like: clean your fridge, season the meat, clean the dining area etc.

Its a shockingly common problem across the board in all industries, not just in the videogame industry. From my personal experience in the last 20 or so years there was a dramatic shift in how managers are trained to view their employees and it was a shift for the worse. It used to be common practice to keep good relationships with your crew because ultimately they are the ones keeping your business afloat. However recently that shifted towards viewing them as "legal thieves" and a "necessary evil".
I remember especially how when they were explaining to us the concept of financial quadrants the guy explaining it was effectively taking a dump on literary everyone except investors. Basically the explanation was that investors are driving the economy, the world and everything while everyone else is just a rube or a borderline parasite. Great quotes such as the "employees are not taking on any real risk" or "manufacturers are ultimately unimportant in the great scheme of things" were dropping left and right during those seminars. The disconnect with reality was absolutely insane but to get back on topic it perfectly mirrored how the videogame industry is managed these days and what is currently happening at Ubisoft and Activision.

The functional and pragmatic human element was effectively replaced with "we can buy our way out of everything". They just assume that there are endless hordes of dumb affable clowns that will give their 110% for the bare minimum who are also simultaneously highly competent creative people, so why bother keeping anyone when you can immediately replace them with a borderline clone? Hell, why bother even pleasing your audience when you can just market(a.k.a buy) yourself a new one? The suits know so little about the actual nitty-gritty of their own industries that a random hobo would not do a worse job and right now it seems that all these decades of shit are finally catching up to them.
Even taking what you wrote with the best possible intentions and interpreting it in the best possible light, it would apply only to productive employees.

Current videogame megacorporations (such as Ubishit) are full of supernumerary, self-serving bureaucracies, such as diversity & inclusion departments and 'community managers', which are entirely superfluous and exist only to justify the salaries of the grifters who work there. In this case, I would side 10 times out of 10 with your stereotypical, moustache-twirling villain capitalists in saying that no, employees are not taking on any real risk and they add zero value to whatever they affect with their "work" - quite the contrary, they add negative value.

However, and for the most part, these companies lack the necessary moustache-twirling capitalist villain. There is woke ineptitude everywhere, including in the financial departments and the higher rungs of any such company.

Whatever numbers these companies bleed, it still won't be enough. Fuck all of them.
 

Ravielsk

Magister
Joined
Feb 20, 2021
Messages
1,514
Even taking what you wrote with the best possible intentions and interpreting it in the best possible light, it would apply only to productive employees.

Current videogame megacorporations (such as Ubishit) are full of supernumerary, self-serving bureaucracies, such as diversity & inclusion departments and 'community managers', which are entirely superfluous and exist only to justify the salaries of the grifters who work there. In this case, I would side 10 times out of 10 with your stereotypical, moustache-twirling villain capitalists in saying that no, employees are not taking on any real risk and they add zero value to whatever they affect with their "work" - quite the contrary, they add negative value.

However, and for the most part, these companies lack the necessary moustache-twirling capitalist villain. There is woke ineptitude everywhere, including in the financial departments and the higher rungs of any such company.

Whatever numbers these companies bleed, it still won't be enough. Fuck all of them.

Well, you see those "community managers" came as a direct consequence of the shift in attitude I described. They are a convenient scapegoat for the management to cover their failures. You see admitting that burning X millions of dollars on a preemptively failed project is hard because that would require the manager to assume some level of responsibility for his actions. Claiming that the project failed due to a lack of diversity is easy because that at worst only amounts in the creation of a new do-nothing job. They are a consequence not the cause and fundamentally they do not differ in attitude from "moustache-twirling capitalist villains". They still have this "FUCK the worker" attitude they just supplement it with occasional woke meme but otherwise its the exact same song and dance.

This is how you get companies like Activision who are seemingly constantly making concessions for the sake of diversity, inclusion and #communism only to then be exposed as a semi-bordello. Only very few have it as their modus operandi for most its just a convenient smoke screen.
 

DeepOcean

Arcane
Joined
Nov 8, 2012
Messages
7,394
I would quit too if my job was to make barrels for the same game for 20 years. However the prospects of those clowns arent good, if they go to Blizzard, the moment they demand a danger hair to work they will become sexual predators, if they go to EA, their company will be closed down and they will be fired again in 5 years, if they go to Activision, they will make phone games for the chink market.

Now, just out of curiosity, why someone with a working brain cell is even working for those companies to begin with?
 

lycanwarrior

Scholar
Joined
Jan 1, 2021
Messages
1,171
Even taking what you wrote with the best possible intentions and interpreting it in the best possible light, it would apply only to productive employees.

Current videogame megacorporations (such as Ubishit) are full of supernumerary, self-serving bureaucracies, such as diversity & inclusion departments and 'community managers', which are entirely superfluous and exist only to justify the salaries of the grifters who work there. In this case, I would side 10 times out of 10 with your stereotypical, moustache-twirling villain capitalists in saying that no, employees are not taking on any real risk and they add zero value to whatever they affect with their "work" - quite the contrary, they add negative value.

However, and for the most part, these companies lack the necessary moustache-twirling capitalist villain. There is woke ineptitude everywhere, including in the financial departments and the higher rungs of any such company.

Whatever numbers these companies bleed, it still won't be enough. Fuck all of them.

Well, you see those "community managers" came as a direct consequence of the shift in attitude I described. They are a convenient scapegoat for the management to cover their failures. You see admitting that burning X millions of dollars on a preemptively failed project is hard because that would require the manager to assume some level of responsibility for his actions. Claiming that the project failed due to a lack of diversity is easy because that at worst only amounts in the creation of a new do-nothing job. They are a consequence not the cause and fundamentally they do not differ in attitude from "moustache-twirling capitalist villains". They still have this "FUCK the worker" attitude they just supplement it with occasional woke meme but otherwise its the exact same song and dance.

This is how you get companies like Activision who are seemingly constantly making concessions for the sake of diversity, inclusion and #communism only to then be exposed as a semi-bordello. Only very few have it as their modus operandi for most its just a convenient smoke screen.

That and the pressure to meet Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investing standards.

And now the undeniable fact that demographics especially in the US have dramatically changed in just a few decades due to immigration.

This is why "woke" pandering is not going to stop.
 

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