The French gaming trade union STJV has revealed that things are not good inside Don't Nod Entertainment SA, the creators of Life is Strange and the new Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, things are pretty bad. Employees are unhappy with management and working conditions.
"Don’t Nod is known for its narrative games tackling issues of inclusion and diversity. Its official website goes even further, claiming that “caring about one another is at the heart of everything we do and is the central theme of our values”. Unfortunately, as often in the video game industry, these values are not put into practice despite being frequently highlighted in corporate communications and in the press," STJV wrote.
According to the trade union, the company has started working on many new projects, but the management cannot cope with its responsibilities, which creates many problems and causes stress for employees.
SJTV identifies four main problems of the company:
- deadlines change very frequently
- information and directions given to teams are contradictory
- employees are moved from one team to another with no long-term vision of projects
- a grueling reorganization, which took over a year to be fully implemented, is leaving entire teams out in the cold
One of the company's recent projects, Jusant, received a lot of positive feedback from the community and, nevertheless, failed commercially, which is why the team was simply scattered to other projects.
The team learned about the latest port of Banisher: Ghost of New Eden, which was released on February 13 and received positive feedback from players, the team learned about it half an hour before the official announcement on social media.
SJTV also alleges that company management has prohibited the union from communicating with Don't Nod employees. It goes so far as to pretend that management doesn't understand SJTV's letters regarding negotiations.
In addition, according to the union, many Don't Nod employees believe that their work is too hard and they are not properly evaluated or recognized. Also, half of the employees do not approve of the company's strategy.
SJTV is also concerned that workers very often say they are sick or take sick leave because of the harsh working conditions.
Don't Nod has not yet commented on the situation.