Employees of the French RTS-developer Eugen Systems have gone on strike to protest “serious violation of [their] rights”. As of yesterday, the 14th of February 2018, 21 workers are striking with support from SJTV (the French Union of Video Game Workers).
In a forum post on behalf of SJTV, the workers cite unpaid overtime, insufficient wages and a lack of response from management for their strike. According to the notice the negotiations between workers and management has been ongoing for nearly fifteen months and their concerns have not yet been addressed (or in some cases been written off as administrative errors).
Eugen Systems are perhaps best known for their Wargame series which encompasses Wargame: European Escalation, Wargame: Airland Battle and Wargame: Red Dragon. The critically acclaimed historical real-time strategy games have found success with European Escalation selling some 800,000 units on steam. According to their website they are currently working on two “top-secret projects”, which are likely to be delayed if the strike is not solved soon.
Video game developers have a long history of serious labor rights issues, but strikes have been mostly absent from the industry. The only high-profile strike in recent memory being the voice actor strike of last year.
