Test Drive Unlimited x GreedFall Push Square

The developer behind the upcoming Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown and past titles in the WRC series has confirmed it's joining GreedFall studio Spiders in a strike against their publisher, Nacon. Citing similar issues with the company, the studio said it's "expressing our solidarity with our colleagues at Spiders and are calling for a strike on September 2nd".

44 of the 95 employees at the firm signed a Spiders Action Committee letter, alleging Nacon of a poor gender pay gap, mismanagement, low wages, high employee turnover, and a refusal to acknowledge collective action. Kylotonn will now join Spiders in the strike — taking place today — stating: "Both studios are property of the Nacon group and encounter similar problems such as: hiring, turn over, a general lack of information about the future of our companies and the productions."

Its statement continues: "Management regularly brings up the studios’ supposed independence, but every demand we make gets rejected with the argument that there should be coherence within the Nacon group. Much in the same way, negotiations are hampered under the same pretense. If no improvement in our working conditions is offered because 'it would drive other studios within the group to ask for the same', it stands to reason then that we make those demands together." Spiders will have a picket line outside its Paris office today and tomorrow, with Kylotonn now joining.

It concludes: "We thank the respective management of our studios for raising awareness of the group’s importance, and are now working on consolidating it. This is why, as workers at Kylotonn, we are expressing our solidarity with our colleagues at Spiders and are calling for a strike on September 2nd!" Last week, Nacon called the accusations made against it "false and even defamatory", and "in no way reflect the reality of the day-to-day working life of the company’s employees". It's unclear whether this will have any impact on the release of Test Drive Unlimited: Solar Crown, which is currently scheduled to release on 12th September 2024.

[source stjv.fr]