An open letter signed by GreedFall 2: The Dying World developers is calling out Spiders studio management for its alleged lack of transparency, failure to achieve greater gender equality, growing instability, and refusal to acknowledge collective action, all which have translated to a difficult production cycle for GreedFall 2, according to the letter.
Ahead of the open-world RPG’s planned September 24 early-access release, workers at the Paris-based Spiders state in the open letter signed by 43 of the studio’s 95 workers that their goal is to “push management to act in the best interests of employees and the company” after leadership’s refusal to work with the studio’s labor movement. To that effect, the letter calls on Spiders employees to stage a strike from September 2-3, with plans to picket in front of the company’s offices. It’s not the first time Spiders has gone on strike this year. Many in the studio walked out in January in support of work-from-home negotiations. Studio leadership following the strike chose “not to react to the labor movement,” according to the letter.
“Management gives the impression of treating us like galley slaves in the hold of a ship, rowing on and on without ever knowing either the route or the destination of their journey,” the letter states. “Spiders feels like a ship sailing with no one at the helm.”
When it comes to gender equality, the letter states no efforts have been made to improve the recruitment and retention of women and marginalized people. The letter states that only around 17% of employees at the studio are women, but that 41% of people leaving the company are women. On average, according to the letter, women at the studio are paid 14% less than men, “an unacceptable gap, which has doubled since 2021.” The letter states that despite being co-founded by a woman and run by a woman CEO, Spiders is a poor performer when it comes to gender parity, even among an “industry of underachievers” on the issue.
“This sexist, hypocritical Spiders is not who we work for, and we’re ashamed of it,” the letter states.
Spiders has also doubled in size in recent years, yet the company’s organization and communication has not kept up, according to the letter. It describes work being undone and decisions frequently changed, resulting in rollbacks and delays.
“While a small team could function with little organization and maintain flexibility and responsiveness, the current size of the company no longer makes it possible,” the letter states. “We’re getting bogged down in complicated productions, which are struggling to find and implement solutions to the problems encountered, and are finding their deadlines increasingly impossible to meet without crunch or sloppy work, which is unsatisfying for everyone involved.”
A result of studio management’s alleged refusal to work with employees on ongoing issues is “widespread anxiety and loss of interest among employees” developing GreedFall 2. The letter calls the upcoming early access release date “painful” and its production “underwater.” The current plan for the complete version of the game to release a year after the early access launch will be “difficult to achieve, as there is so much left to do,” according to the letter.
The letter in its list of demands calls on Spiders management to be more transparent, asks for a reorganization and simplification of administrative processes, the right to work from home a minimum of three days a week, the immediate end to all wage discrimination against women and non-binary people, wage increases, and more.
GreedFall 2 is still slated to release on Steam in early access on September 24, with console versions also planned. Spiders’ previous game, the Soulslike RPG Steelrising, released in 2022.
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