ARE you looking for a change of career? Do you fancy a job that involves 100-hour weeks and compulsory unpaid overtime which will exhaust you so much that you might have to bring a sleeping bag to the office? Not to mention a dose of casual sexism towards you if you’re female as well as a dose of racist cultural stereotypes towards ethnic minorities.

Don’t expect to be paid much either even though you will work in an industry that is valued at $197 billion with products seen by around 3.5 billion people worldwide. Unfortunately, this is the reality for many video game workers. 

Run by large studios, the video game industry is one of the worst examples of modern capitalism that would make Marx shudder. In 2021 the largest five video game companies raked it in, with Nintendo having a revenue of $15.88bn, Sony $84.59bn, Tencent Holdings $86.61bn, and Microsoft $168.08bn.

Despite this, workers are frequently underpaid and treated like commodities by their employers, working until they are close to collapse to ensure they make as much money for their bosses as possible. These highly skilled professionals create video games and entirely new imaginative universes. 

However, in recent years a group of British game workers decided to fight back, forming a Game Workers branch within the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) union. They previously existed as Game Workers Unite UK, a branch of the international Game Workers Unite (GWU) group attempting to unionise the industry.

Having originally emerged as a Facebook group, the idea of unionising the industry gathered momentum at the Game Developers Conference in March 2018, leading to the establishment of the GWU later that year.  

According to Lucian Branescu-Mihaila, secretary of IWGB Game Workers, those in the industry who were interested in unionising chose to form a branch with the IWGB because of a positive track record in terms of successful actions with hard-to-organise workers.

Another reason was the fact that the IWGB develops industry-specific branches within a central union often in industries that are traditionally difficult to unionise. 

One of the most pernicious issues facing workers in the industry is excessive unpaid overtime, known as crunch, when game workers are required to work very long hours to complete the production of games at the last minute.

According to a 2017 survey, 90 per cent of game workers were expected to work overtime but only 74 per cent were paid for such work.

Branescu-Mihaila argues that companies use crunch to make up for “poor planning or understaffing,” a practice that continues despite workers — including bloggers such as EA Spouse and Rockstar Spouse — speaking out about the practice in the past.

He adds that “paid overtime, unionised workplaces and sustainable planning” are the key goals that IWGB Game Workers need to work towards to break the stranglehold of crunch. 

One of the challenges in the industry is the dominance of neoliberal ideology, not just in terms of the political perspective of the often-pro-Establishment narratives of the games, but among game workers themselves.

Like other tech-related industries, this manifests itself in values that reflect individual rather than collective achievement and myths of amazing individual success stories.

Branescu-Mihaila argues that the success stories of these “founders” are often exaggerated and game workers are gradually starting to see themselves as exploited workers.

“As a relatively young industry, there are many stories of founders’ individual success through merit, real or not. In most cases, such founders either made a comparatively small game by themselves or were leading a larger team which rarely gets the same credit. Some founders are still involved in the development of games to some extent, which helps sustain the myth.

“After repeated waves of redundancies over the years, more workers realise that there is a finite number of companies they could be working for. More and more in the games industry see themselves as workers instead of temporarily embarrassed studio founders.”

Despite the work of IWGB Game Workers, the industry still has a low level of union density which makes it difficult to challenge redundancies and initiate industrial action. Branescu-Mihaila argues that the fact that many game workers work remotely is also a barrier.

“The biggest challenge is the current low union density. When a small group of workers in a company is affected by a problem it is difficult to gain sufficient support from their coworkers to force the company’s hand. This makes it particularly difficult to deal with redundancies, with workers unaffected being reluctant to put themselves at risk. There is also some difficulty for remote workers to organise, who have less opportunity to communicate with their coworkers without risking workplace surveillance.”

One of the criticisms of the industry is its sexist culture. In the past, some men have spent time trawling through the social media accounts of female employees before vocally demanding they are sacked if they follow feminist figures. In workplaces, complaints of improper conduct towards female employees are often ignored by management. A 2015 survey revealed that 45 per cent of women working in or associated with the industry had experienced bullying or harassment while the same percentage also believed that there were barriers to their career progression due to their gender. 

According to Branescu-Mihaila, this is particularly reflective of the fact that the industry has spent “decades” targeting games at “boys and young men, generally white and straight.” However, he added that the union has represented members facing sexism and they have appointed a women and marginalised genders officer. 

Another issue in the industry is its links with the US military-industrial complex, including the production of games that have gratuitous violence and anti-socialist pro-imperialist propaganda. Some game-writers and designers are often paired with military consultants to add authenticity while some games are targeted for promotion by gun companies. The British army has launched recruitment adverts targeted at gamers.

Branescu-Mihaila argues that although this is an issue, a more unionised workforce would help change the industry to produce more “politically interesting” games compared to the current situation where most workers don’t get a say in their working conditions, let alone the political slant of games. He also points to the Games Transformed festival held in London in May, co-hosted by the union that showcased left-leaning games. These included titles such as Game of War, Corbyn Run, Thatcher’s Techbase and Daybreak, where gamers must prevent climate change collapse. 

IWGB Game Workers have also fought against redundancies in the industry including at Lockwood Publishing in 2021, accusing the company of breaking employment law. As Branescu-Mihaila explains, they took the challenge head-on and were able to win concessions and help grow the union.

“A collective petition was signed by a large number of workers at Lockwood. We worked on recruiting workers affected or at risk, representing workers in redundancy hearings as well as putting pressure on the employer through social media, games industry press, and even statements from local MPs. This resulted in a reduction in the number of workers facing mandatory redundancies, improved terms for those who were made redundant, and growth of our union.”

However, the fight against redundancies is an ongoing one, with Branescu-Mihaila admitting that a “new wave” has hit the industry. In response, the union is meeting with affected workers as well as helping them to organise their workplaces while more game developers “than ever” have joined the union.

One IWGB Game Workers member who is currently facing redundancy but wanted to remain anonymous said that they had joined the union in 2018 after hearing about the prevalence of crunch and other workplace issues on social media. They were highly critical of the way that companies were treating workers as commodities.

“They are willing to put all their chips on the table for potential gains, regardless of what terrible losses could come from it. And those losses all too often result in people losing their jobs.

“Do not give in to despair. It’s natural to feel anguish in times like these, but together we can reach out to those in need, get through this moment, and work together to build a better industry for us all.”

In public consciousness trade unionists still tend to be stereotyped in crude ways based on industrial disputes that happened decades ago. However, the trade union movement is constantly adapting and evolving to meet the radically different workplaces of the 21st century, compared to the peak of trade union influence in the 1970s following the huge changes brought about by the fourth industrial revolution.

IWGB Game Workers is playing an increasingly important role in fighting for better working conditions for those who have the imagination and drive to create the imaginative worlds that so many millions around the world enjoy.