Union workers at Life is Strange developer Don't Nod claim the company is illegally targeting individuals as part of an ongoing redundancy process.
French union Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo (STJV) has made the claim shortly after Don't Nod leadership confirmed the studio has opened safeguard proceedings to freeze its liabilities in a fight for survival.
The Paris studio is currently fending off the threat of insolvency and has repeatedly stated it could eliminate up to 85 jobs in France as part of a restructuring plan, which CEO Oskar Guilbert says has already achieved "significant milestones."
Yet, the Don't Nod STJV section claims the target set by the company will still leave the studio "inadapted" to finishing its final in-development project, codenamed 'P14.'
Notably, STJV has accused Don't Nod of attempting to keep select people in jobs via "individualised targeting," which it notes is illegal under French law. Crucially, the union claims nearly all of the "non-managerial" jobs at the studio have been placed on the chopping block.
"Nearly all of the non-managerial jobs are cut: 6/6 animators, 3/3 character artists, 3/3 concept artists, 8/10 environmental artists, 2/3 sound designers, 4/8 game designers, 3/5 level designers, 6/6 associate producers, 18/22 programmers, 3/5 QA testers, 2/3 devops, 3/4 HR," notes the union.
STJV described the situation as a "massacre." It said Don't Nod is disproportionately targeting rank-and-file workers by creating 47 professional categories (covering 140 employees) that effectively allows it to pick and choose who to make redundant.
"23 categories contain only one person, either to keep that person or because management wants to fire them," the union adds. "It doesn’t even apply its own method coherently, which contradicts the existing job descriptions already in place within the company."
As noted by global HR law firm Lus Laboris, French law dictates that any dismissal plan must target positions rather than individual people, and that criteria must be established to determine which roles will be cut.
STJV workers claim Don't Nod intends to retain a cohort of management staff and then orchestrate a "massive shift" towards outsourcing in order to complete P14.
"Anyone with a little experience with video games production and sanity understands how out-of-touch such a plan is," STJV continues. "The costs of outsourcing a project that was mostly internal up until now and the loss of the experience gained all throughout production seem to have been ignored in favour of short-term penny-pinching with unclear upsides."
Vertical Slice has reached out to Don't Nod for comment.
Chris is an award-winning reporter with over a decade of experience covering the video game industry. He was formerly news editor at Game Developer and is currently the founder and editor of this resplendent website.
