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Tom Henderson: Ubisoft Internal Channels Imploding - Company Likely to Experience Talent Exodus

Draugoth

Draugoth

Gold Member

Tom Henderson: Ubisoft's internal communication channels are full of employees shaming upper management and asking for change. Ubisoft is going to experience a massive exodus of talent, even without the impending layoffs.


Following the announcement of Ubisoft's restructuring and third round of cost-cutting measures, Ubisoft's internal communication channels are full of employees shaming upper management and asking for change. It's quite something seeing people very openly criticising a company they work for to such an extent, but after years of struggle, it's not surprising.
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Some employee's tell me that this was the final nail in the coffin for them, and that they will be seeking employment elsewhere, and others have decided to fast-track their already existing contingency plans in case they were laid off. More have taken to LinkedIn to publically announce they are now looking for work, despite still having a job at the company.
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Ubisoft is going to experience a massive exodus of talent, even without the impending layoffs.
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Ubisoft is going to exp

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Uh Huh Yes GIF


Yeah Ubi is farming XP

You know you post too quickly Draugoth
 
Makes sense... a company that prioritized blue hair idiots and now wants to penalize even the good employess with a bullshit RTO (return to office) policy deserves every criticism possible.

And dont give me the only office workers really work, i work from home for almost 6 yers, as today im on the same company for more that 2,5 years (brazilian contractor -> US based company) and the work flow is absolutely well oiled.
 
If the management is that bad, it makes sense to exit the company and start over I guess. France has some great talent. Hopefully they can begin with some small startups like Sandfall did. A ton of people will get lost in the shuffle though, but here's hoping the top people can find some investment funding.
 
PauloRoberto said:
Makes sense... a company that prioritized blue hair idiots and now wants to penalize even the good employess with a bullshit RTO (return to office) policy deserves every criticism possible.

And dont give me the only office workers really work, i work from home for almost 6 yers, as today im on the same company for more that 2,5 years (brazilian contractor -> US based company) and the work flow is absolutely well oiled.
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I will give you only office workers really work because it's true. For every 1 worker who can handle home work 10 can't.
 
why the workers upset. there are getting paid to sit at home in their underwear.

Company should be complaining there are too many useless workers. Of course the company hired them in the first place.
 
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JohnnyFootball said:
I will give you only office workers really work because it's true. For every 1 worker who can handle home work 10 can't.
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Agree to disagree. The real problem with working from home is that an idita can pretend for more time (of course we do have those idiots in office, and good lord, i saw so many...).

The PROBLEM with working from home is that middle management must work more to identify who is really working (and im not taking about hour, but result). We do know that middle managers does not like to work, they like to boss around...
 
pqueue said:
no!!!!if they get jobs elsewhere, more games will be enshittified according to the Ubisoft way
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As far as I'm aware, so far there has been no proof of this yet:

clair-obscur-expedition-33-has-reached-over-100-000-v0-ml0sopyf89gf1.png

Absolver.png

astray.png


If the above images keep happening it will continue to give credence to the idea that management was the actual issue.

Edit: If anything, seeing the words "Ex-Ubisoft employee" for more future successful game releases is probably starting to inspire hope to those who want to leave Ubisoft.
 
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Looking for work where? The only part of the industry that is hiring is China, Japan, and South Korea…

And investment for new companies has dried up…maybe there's some multi multi millionaires among them who can fund some cool stuff 🤷‍♂️
 
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Gonzito said:
If I was working on a project for years and this stupid ass Guillemot comes to cancel it I would be furious too

Ubisoft needed a new CEO years ago
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Yep, folks lament about that sci-fi MMO looter shooter that the Elder Scrolls Online devs were working on for years, and then due to Phil Spencer's incompetence, the whole project got shut down. The head of the studio literally left because of it, because it was his dream game to make. When you have a group of people making something they're passionate about, you get a very different product than the one where you're making it because you're told to do so. Complete and utter waste of resources and talent.

Ubisoft deservedly gets a lot of shit as a company, but there is a lot of amazing talent over there. Seriously, look at both the Anvil and Snowdrop engines alone. While most studios are leaning on Unreal Engine or whatever, they're using in-house engines. Assassin's Creed Shadows is a whatever to me, but the underlying tech powering that game is incredible.

John Carmack is one of the greatest programmers of our generation. He worked at Meta for a time. Guess what? It didn't pan out. It's not because Carmack is incapable, but he was beholden to the decisions of the leadership above him while he worked there.

A good leader can make a pool of mediocre talent punch above their weight. A bad leader mandating poor strategies can make an all-star team lose.
 
March Climber said:
As far as I'm aware, so far there has been no proof of this yet:

clair-obscur-expedition-33-has-reached-over-100-000-v0-ml0sopyf89gf1.png

Absolver.png

astray.png


If the above images keep happening it will continue to give credence to the idea that management was the actual issue.

Edit: If anything, seeing the words "Ex-Ubisoft employee" for more future successful game releases is probably starting to inspire hope to those who want to leave Ubisoft.
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250px-Jade_Raymond_-_E3_2007.jpg
 
JohnnyFootball said:
I will give you only office workers really work because it's true. For every 1 worker who can handle home work 10 can't.
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My entire company is remote and we do well, developing large scale, enterprise applications. Many of our clients you probably use in your everyday life or at least know someone who does. So try again.
 
I imagine most of talented and valuable employees already left. The rest should do whatever they can to keep their job at Ubisoft, because they sure as hell not going to find another one easily.
 
soulbait said:
My entire company is remote and we do well, developing large scale, enterprise applications. Many of our clients you probably use in your everyday life or at least know someone who does. So try again.
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And I can tell you that is not the case at my company, which has 25,000 employees and also develop large scale enterpreise applicatons. These things aren't black and white. Some people are very adept at working remotely, and some people aren't. We have a hybrid model and that seems to be a sweet spot for most of our employees. Many of our employees prefer to come into the office because they don't want to work in their 200 sq foot Manhattan closet of an apartment. At the office we have free lunch, free gym, lounge areas, game rooms, and many other amenities. If I was still living in the city and didn't have a 90-min commute, I would probably go into the office more often then I'm required to as well.
 
PauloRoberto said:
Agree to disagree. The real problem with working from home is that an idita can pretend for more time (of course we do have those idiots in office, and good lord, i saw so many...).

The PROBLEM with working from home is that middle management must work more to identify who is really working (and im not taking about hour, but result). We do know that middle managers does not like to work, they like to boss around...
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Yea, wfh isnt that damaging to productivity. It's moreso terrible management. Games have been taking longer and longer and longer to make even years after the worst of Covid.

Let the exodus occur. I want to see Ubisoft collapse. I am not lying. Ideally it should end with the upper management getting curb stomped and flayed. I really do not like this company.
 
Fukct I hope Ubisoft doesn't go under because man, the worlds and details they put into most of their games, are incredible. All I know is Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is fukcing amazing now. Anyone play it? My brother and I just got our Direhorses after an epic quest to get our Ikrans (Banshee). What a game. Stunning in parts. Yeah there's some iffy quest dynamics but once you get your Banshee and Direhorse, the game opens up. The details, wind dynamics, audio, overall immersion are top notch. It's really well optimized now. In playing it (and other titles), I'm thinking, Ubisoft gets too much undeserved hatred. It sounds like it's the leadership which causes the problems, unfortunately. Leadership needs to chill and stop cancelling shit, am I right? Place things on back burners let ideas and those games simmer for a bit, them come back to them. Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is on sale btw. It has coop gameplay too (after a certain point it unlocks)

Lastly, I've been a gamer for over 45 years now. I've been playing Ubisoft games long as I can remember. Yeah some of their game mechanics are way too redundant but games like The Division, Avatar: FoP, AC Creed: Origins, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, Rayman, Far Cry 3, Far Cry Primal, the old Silent Hunter or IL-2 Sturmovik series (anyone remember those?) just fantastic stuff. Really immersive. And that's what gaming is all about. If something can grab your attention and take you places otherwise you couldn't go, or you think about the game even when not playing, then that's a good game.
 
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Following the announcement of Ubisoft's restructuring and third round of cost-cutting measures, Ubisoft's internal communication channels are full of employees shaming upper management and asking for change. It's quite something seeing people very openly criticising a company they work for to such an extent, but after years of struggle, it's not surprising...
Click to expand...

question for ubisoft management: who hired these imbeciles? they can't help being imbeciles, but they didn't hire themselves. your real problem is those idiots you hired who then hired these imbeciles. making the real real problem you...
 
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mdkirby said:
Looking for work where? The only part of the industry that is hiring is China, Japan, and South Korea…

And investment for new companies has dried up…maybe there's some multi multi millionaires among them who can fund some cool stuff 🤷‍♂️
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Assuming they can actually code and they're not just there to do yoga and check emails, there will always be work available in other fields.

They might not make video games for a living and have to do something they don't care about like the rest of us. Allow me to break out the world's smallest violin.
 
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I'd really like to see pics of the most vocal employees who are doing this, because my bias is making me picture some very specific types and I'd love to be proven wrong.

If these people go online often (again, my bias tells me they definitely do), they should have seen a tiny bit of criticism about their company's output for the last… oh… eight years or so? Maybe more? But that was all from bad people, they said. And now they're blaming upper management? But of course they are.

(it's all too easy to speculate, really. A deep enquiry into this would be gold. Possibly not from Jason, the guy does good work but his bias gets in the way too much)
 
ValiantInstance said:
Assuming they can actually code and they're not just there to do yoga and check emails, there will always be work available in other fields.

They might not make video games for a living and have to do something they don't care about like the rest of us. Allow me to break out the world's smallest violin.
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Not exactly a booming job market in any industry, particularly for people trying to change careers. Ai (and robots) will only gobble more and more up as the months and years go by.
 
These comments make it seem like you all work for Ubi and have a clue.

They need to change the playbook. That playbook is ran by the execs, not the lower level employees.
 
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mdkirby said:
Not exactly a booming job market in any industry, particularly for people trying to change careers. Ai (and robots) will only gobble more and more up as the months and years go by.
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Exactly what I was thinking. I'm sure people are looking but an exodus? I'd be surprised to see it in this market.
 
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