In 2021, overseas game manufacturers seem to have a lot of problems, such as: Epic Games and Apple court, Activision Blizzard broke out to appease sexism and sexual harassment scandals, EA's high-profile game masterpiece overturning, and so on. Today, Ubisoft, a multinational game giant that often discounts and delivers games, is also in trouble!
According to the latest report from the overseas media "Axios", Ubisoft has lost a large number of employees in the past eighteen months! Generally speaking, the flow of people in a company is normal, but it is not normal to fluctuate sharply in a short period of time. Internal employees who currently work at Ubisoft have jokingly called the recent departures "the great exodus" or "the cut artery."
Some of the evidence of "Axios" is obtained from the overseas website LinkedIn, LinkedIn a world-renowned recruitment platform covering 800 million members and more than 200 countries and regions around the world, dedicated to providing professional services for job seekers and recruiters. According to Axios, Ubisoft's brain drain rate is as high as 12%, which means that more than 2,400 of Ubisoft's more than 20,000 employees have left in recent years, which is significantly higher than EA (9%), Take-Two (8%), and Epic Games (7%), and only lower than the troubled Activision Blizzard (16%)!
In terms of details, five of the 25 senior members on the team that developed Far Cry 6 left, while the Assassin's Creed: Valiant team had a 24 percent turnover rate. A departing employee said: Recently, a former colleague came to contact and hoped to help solve a problem in a game, because the senior employees walked too much, so that no one among the current employees could solve it! This is supported to some extent by the above data.
As for the reasons, due to well-known factors, the environment is not very good, and Ubisoft's salary is not competitive, resulting in the loss of talent. For example, Ubisoft recently raised the salaries of Canadian employees in an attempt to solve certain problems. However, it also caused employees at other studios to feel unbalanced and demand the same treatment. While one problem is solved, another new problem arises! Of course, allegations of misconduct faced by Ubisoft and a prying disaster (similar to Activision Blizzard) are also significant factors in employee turnover.
Interestingly, Ubisoft's management, in an interview, believed that the recent attrition was due to the impact of the company's recruitment of about 2,600 new employees in April this year, and although the recent turnover rate was a few percentage points higher than the general situation, it was still within industry norms.
The Doctor believes that the outbreak of Ubisoft's departures reflects that there are indeed many problems within the company, but they are not fatal. For us ordinary players, the progress of many of Ubisoft's new games should have been affected and will have to wait longer, such as: Splinter Cell: Remake.