cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/36712639
Ubisoft’s first North American union, located at their Halifax, Nova Scotia studio, was certified on December 18th, 2025. Now, not even a full 30 days later, Ubisoft Halifax is closing.
Wow, a whole unionized and competent studio now free to pursue internally chosen productions? I sure hope they don’t get some of those “Canadian Heritage” media subsidies. Seriously though this is the shit the state should be funding, it’d be a shame to have this kind of resource squandered.
Yep. Rename to Unisoft and start making good games.
They realy could make another clair obscur
If the Canadian government were real it would exact punishing fines on the company’s Canadian held assets in response to this. And I don’t mean cost of business fees, I mean hurtful costs, because these giant fucking companies seriously damage Canadian lives when they just rugpull the labour after making massive profits of Canadian operations. There is no justifiable reason to side with Ubisoft or their scumsucking management here.
My 10+ year long Ubisoft boycott still looking like a good idea.
Eh, I haven’t boycott Ubisoft. But also, they don’t make good games so I haven’t bought any either. Might just make it official after this though.
indeed
so you are saying we can end ubisoft by simply unionizing?
Eh, we are already unionized in France. The difference is we have laws protecting workers so they can’t just shut a studio down willy nilly.
So do we in Canada… But that doesn’t mean that they are enforced
Ok so did they organize and sue the company?
Cuz enforcement usually requires more work such as a class action suit. Lawyers aren’t just jumping out there suing companies and filing the paper work to protect workers all on their own. There’s usually at least one person organizing it.
So who’s the person who got let go at Ubisoft that got it started?
deleted by creator
As far as I’m concerned, unionization should be government mandated for every company everywhere in every industry.
But unfortunately we live in hell.
Absolutely this. We need mandated unions for every single company that exists. And with loopholes closed, like offshoring/outsourcing, corporate “headquarters” is a closet in Delaware, etc.
I get where you’re coming from but unions should not be mandated, they need to be formed for the actual workers that want things to change for the better. Just look at Sweden for a good example of how to implement unions at almost all workspaces without the need for the state to be involved.
Look at Belgium for a good example of how they are mandated.
So how do they do it?
With stronger union protections, necessary unions will form organically.
By not getting the state involved at all. All negotiations happens between the workers and the companies with about 88% of workers in Sweden having a collective agreement. All workers also have the right legally to join or start a union and unionbusting is illegal. If the company doesn’t want a collective agreement it usually results in strikes such as the ongoing one against Tesla that has been going on since 2023.
But union busting being illegal is the state getting involved.
True, that we can agree on is necessary to not get into the same situation that happened here. What I’m saying is that it is not necessary for something to be mandatory for it to still be almost universal.
“Doesn’t need government” proceeds to name gov protection
Was a bit tired when writing the comment, should have been adjusted to minimal involvement as the main procedures should still be between workers and companies with the state just guaranteeing that these procedures can take place at all.
Now that’s a nuanced take!!! That I’m on board with.
That’s the way it works in France (and other EU countries, I assume?). We literally have to have a workers reprensative council past a certain number of employees.
As a Canadian living north of the nut-hatch, I wish I had the money to excercise my dual citizenship and get out of here to Portugal, or anywhere else in the EU.
I live in Germany. Here its not mandated to have a workers representative council, but you are entitled to be allowed to make one. A workers representative council is distinct from a union, though.
That would be normal in a socialist society, not in a capitalistic one.
Right… They closed it as a “cost-cutting measure” and “not because the studio unionized”. This is where the lawmakers are just letting everyone know that they are garbage to be walked all over. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that “cost-cutting” a studio that just unionized is because they unionized, because a union means they have to start paying their workers their fair share, which means “higher costs” to them, when it should’ve been like that from the start.
Whelp, I already de facto boycotting Ubisoft since I’m a patent gamer. Guess I’ll actively boycott them now.
Patent gamer?
You only play original ideas?
No they only play games while in the hospital
Nope, I only play games that are heavily discounted or given away
I get that, I was just having fun with your typo 🙂
It’s double funny because it’s pretty much the opposite of what it was meant.
capitalism is terrorism
The open corruption and lack of empathy for the working class is just embarrassing. I hate EVERY company now since they only care about shares. They don’t even consider us as human, we are simply just tools for them and can be thrown away at any moment.
They always have. The owners of industry crave for the days of the Golden Age of Capitalism where they get to be the robber barons instead of just hearing tales about their Grandpa.
Jesus fucking christ so blatantly evil
Anyone notice that Halifax is spelt 3 different ways in the article?
My personal favourite is Hailfox.
LMAO, a and o are on opposite end of the keyboard, how do you even do this?
a and o are on opposite end of the keyboard
Maybe the author has a Dvorak keyboard layout (a and o are next to each other there).
Solvent corporations shouldn’t be legally allowed to dissolve positions.
Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
It’s so easy to not buy games. When was the last good game they made? I guess I’ll continue to ignore their catalog.
I think they own hitman but honestly I still prefer blood money anyway. Play the oldies, goodies or the new Indies, goodies.
IOI bought Hitman back a few years ago, which is why World of Assassination is a thing. Before that, Ubi ruined it with a billion different packages. Now it’s a simple thing to get all three (modern) games.
Ah ok that’s why its not a steaming pile of shit. I remember when they streamlined it but didn’t realize there was a change over.
That was Square Enix not Ubisoft.
Oop, thank you! That’s what I get for posting in the middle of the night.
