Let me tell you about WrenFeathers, folks. WrenFeathers! Tremendous moderator, just tremendous. You wouldn’t believe how many people—millions, really—are talking about WrenFeathers. Everybody loves this person, okay? And I’m saying that because it’s true. Some people say, “Why WrenFeathers? Why?” And I say, “Why not WrenFeathers?”

This is one hell of a Trumpian post truth argumentation right there

I really think they shot themselves in the feet by going from a pve online coop game like Helldivers to whatever this is trying to be, that plus the pricing chance (it was supposed to be f2p and is now 40)…

Then again, I don’t know what’s up internally, they probably know what they’re doing, it still feels like it’s not going to be popular

Publishing a roadmap for bugfixing a released dlc was not on my bingo card

It’s not really gameplay but : not rendering me deaf when launching the game for the first time, games need to have their volume down to 50% by default

Yes I believe they have received buffs on blood moon maps

The Finals changed some in-game props into jack o lanterns you can throw at opponents to deal damage, and the maps have a spooky variant with spiderwebs and whatnot.

Phasmophobia is running a Halloween event amidst its console release, but it’s mostly just playing the map to make a counter go up, kind of disappointed.

Deep Rock Galactic has the usual lobby reskin, and extra cosmetics, always fun to go back to !

There’s only a few that have managed to be praised despite being so far detached from previous iterations, I can only think or Prey, Spec Ops

Indeed but being able to dispose of something by selling it does not automatically means you owned it

Thank you !!

Don’t get your hopes up though:

The new studio currently comprises 12 people, including some who worked on the original game and on its cancelled sequel, and former staff from Bungie (Destiny, Halo) and Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption).

[…]

Longdue has not specified exactly who from Disco Elysium’s original team is working on its new game, though it has said that Rostov and Kurvitz are not involved.

Posting it as a separate comment because I feel like the most important info is in there:

Q:

What are the reasons for your call for a strike?

A:

On September 17, management announced that it wanted to impose 3 days of face-to-face work per week. Many of us have organized our lives around work from home, allowing us to reconcile our professional and personal lives, reduce our travel, manage a disability or be a caregiver. This method has also compensated for the overload due to the non-replacement of colleagues.

Despite this, no guarantee has been given regarding future negotiations, especially after the failure on profit-sharing, revealing a purely formal social dialogue and management focused on stock market indicators rather than employee commitment.

We are therefore calling on Ubisoft employees to strike on Tuesday, October 15 in the afternoon to defend the following:

• ⁠Work from home: preserving work-life balance and employment.
• ⁠Salary: catching up with inflation and salary scale.
• ⁠Social dialogue: real negotiations.
• ⁠Profit-sharing: a 13th month as compensation.

Q:

Is there a way/effort to enlist colleagues from other countries? Or does the legal framework elsewhere make such action too risky?

A:

We represent French employees. But there are efforts being made in other countries to unionize. However, this is not our responsibility and we prefer not to go into this subject.

Q:

What was your position on the death of The Crew 1 video game, and the vague statements of the guy who said “players are going to have to get used to not owning their games anymore”? Were there any attempts to prevent the servers from being disconnected (which eventually happened)? In any case, it caused such a stir that Ivory Tower recently said they were going to implement an offline mode for The Crew 2 and Motorfest.

A:

We, who are also gamers, see, like you, that the pressure from the financial markets leads to decisions that do not serve the interests of players.

Q:

Isn’t the return to on-site work just a disguised layoff plan, which would fit in with the wave of massive layoffs that the sector has been experiencing for some time? A little off topic: There are rumors of a buyout by Tencent (or at least a significant increase in their stake in Ubi’s capital), how do you feel about it internally?

A:

Decisions concerning the structuring of shareholding at Ubisoft are completely beyond the control of employees. We have no information on this subject.

Q:

How are the rumors of a buyout by Tencent perceived internally? Is the atmosphere the same as during the rumors of Vivendi’s purchases a few years ago?

Given the recent critical success of the latest Prince of Persia (I don’t know if the game was profitable though), isn’t this a sign for Ubisoft’s management to trust its internal talents more to make more original games rather than wanting to jump on any trend (nft, service games, etc.) even if it means alienating certain developers and consumers?

A:

Employees follow the media on the buyout rumors, which worries them. Employees and ourselves are attached to the collective work of Ubisoft, which is a flagship of the French video game industry. We work to defend employment and our working conditions.

What is new within Ubisoft is the union fact, which gives employees a voice and concrete action to defend their rights.

Q:

Even if your goal is to protect employees and their jobs, don’t you think that there are too many people in some sectors of IT today? With covid and the world having switched to teleworking for 2 years, the number of jobs in tech has exploded, and companies have recruited en masse. Except that today demand is collapsing, and is facing a void, since the strong demand at the time of covid has now been satisfied. Meanwhile, shareholders are still on their cloud of illusions of permanent and infinite growth and are always asking for more.

In short, we know very well who is at fault in this mess, but don’t you think that a reduction in certain jobs in tech is necessary?

A:

We are indeed very attached to job protection. During the COVID period, profits exploded and this is particularly true for video games, investors expected to have the same level of growth. This period has ended, and some of the investments from this period have not been absorbed by the market. This is part of the vagaries of investments. The video game market is still growing despite everything and is actually doing quite well.

We don’t see why we should get rid of tech employees.

Q:

OP, what is the internal morale of the teams (I’m talking about the field, obviously not the LinkedIn bullshit distilled by management)?

A:

Employees are very attached to their company. Their morale is starting to be attacked with the drop in living standards and the questioning of teleworking.

Q:

Since this is the topic of the day, the cases of walkouts and collective action that I have in mind often involve physical meetings/actions. This makes it easier to mobilize the troops and create a body effect. [I don’t know how to translate “effet de corps”, what they mean is that the union will show as one block, instead of seeming separated]

Consequently, how do you manage, from a union point of view, the mobilization of physically separated employees?

A:

This is indeed a real difficulty, especially since the company refuses us the right to communicate by email to employees. We therefore use all the other means at our disposal to reach employees.

As for the terms of the strike on the same day, we invite employees to join us at the headquarters for those who can. The others will simply stop working.

This is a very good question, and it would be interesting to offer them an innovative mode of action. We will see if it is possible to stream the gathering planned at the headquarters. We are open to proposals.

Q:

Could you share information on to the impact that the Libération [french newspaper] investigation had a few years ago on the accusations of harassment, including sexual harassment, and more generally of a Boys Club atmosphere within Ubisoft?

I remember that at the time there was a certain frustration about the management’s not very ambitious response, but did it have an impact over time?

A:

Ubisoft culture has evolved a lot since the Libération investigation. What is new within Ubisoft is the union fact, which gives employees a voice and takes concrete action to defend their rights.

The employer has the obligation to protect the health and safety of its employees. To this end, it implements preventive measures, particularly on psychosocial risks.

We work daily to ensure that an effective prevention policy is put in place and ensures a healthy and fulfilling work environment.

Q:

Are you going to cook the merguez on CPUs?

A:

We’re thinking about it, we’ll ask our data center engineers for advice

[Note: cooking merguez is a staple of strikes in France, it’s a meme, but it’s very grounded in reality, you’ll have merguez stands available for lunch at every protest]