The storm hits
Le Syndicat des Travailleureuses du Jeu Vidéo, a French game workers union, have released a statement detailing the current status of Don't Nod, the studio behind Life is Strange and Lost Records: Bloom and Rage. The studio's fate has been precarious for some time, but STJV now say that the studio has announced ("to financial press before the employees, as has been its MO") that it is under a "safeguard procedure" to avoid complete insolvency due to an inability to pay off its debts.
The studio's CEO, Oskar Guilbert, told employees that "a safeguarding process is an act of anticipation", in reference to the fact that last year, the CSE (employee representatives) were presented with two outcomes: either future games would find funding and staff would still be laid off, or no funding would be acquired, and the company would be liquidated. It seems the latter is now likely to come to pass, as STJV state that the company does not even have the funds to complete its pre-existing redundancies plan for laid-off employees. The union also note that "the CEO finished his address with empty remarks on how much attention was paid to employees, which everyone knows was bullshit and probably written by ChatGPT."
The statement goes on to clarify that the company will be unable to complete the last remaining project that was in development, referred to as P14. This is due to a huge incoming swathe of layoffs, which include "nearly all of the non-managerial jobs":
"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…
"Management is extremely clearly going for heavily individualized targeting and hasn’t been shy about their intent to keep selected people in rather than jobs, which is illegal."
In an apparent attempt to keep the studio running despite obliterating its staff, "management is betting its all on outsourcing", expecting managers to be able to keep things moving as normal despite the alleged shift to outsourcing and contractors taking on the existing work of fired staff. STJV put it better than I could: "Anyone with a little experience with video games production and sanity understands how out-of-touch such a plan is. 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."
The article closes by claiming that the CSE's negotiations with Don't Nod were essentially a farce, as the company had no intent of negotiating in the first place; "Management declares that it cannot offer anything: it’ll be the strict legal minimum and you’ll be glad for it." Concerns regarding the future of the studio have seemingly been made clear by the CSE for years, reportedly living with a sword of Damocles over their heads due to repeated mismanagement, miscommunication and gaslighting, but the future looks bleak. "They ignored the CSE, middle managers, the STJV, financial auditors, all because they believed unyieldingly that a miracle would come and they’d find funds for a game that was too big, too ambitious and ultimately too expensive."
The CSE consultation will reach its end on November 3rd, following which "the regional agency for employment and industry will have 21 days to decide on the plan, and if it is accepted, people could get their firing letters on November 25th." Though, if it is rejected, management would have to figure out a way forward other than insolvency, "because, as you might have gathered, planning for contingencies isn’t their forte."