PMG Responds to the Games Industry Layoffs

[@chilldude30]

Quintin backing his boy with the biggest laugh in the room every time, I love it!

[@TomasCordilheira]

Look for a partner that support your joke like quintin support his bro

[@lemonlordminecraft]

@@TomasCordilheira Historians will say they were friends

[@agentepsilon5014]

I think we are finally seeing the ramifications of big corporations holding huge shares of the market while simultaneously not respecting the market they are in. The triple A space for games has nearly always been a disappointment while indie developers are finally getting more recognition. However, these companies give out once in a lifetime deals to these struggling devs only to rugpull them for their own connivence. It’s especially frustrating when they sent games out to die like Hi Fi Rush only for it to do extremely well. XBOX finally had a flagship series worth investing, and they pulled the plug.

[@termitreter6545]

Idk why any of that is surprising. You take money from giant companies, or let yourself get bought up, you lose control of your business to these companies. Thats literally the deal, and its always been taht way in the gaming industry. And without companies like this, you wouldnt even have stuff like HiFi rush being made.

[@boxhead6177]

The Investment Banking strategy of buying everything fails the instant your wealthy banker refuses to pay, its always that one bad deal or one deal too many, that crushes them. Look at Embracer Group, they were sitting pretty until the CEO went too far, bought Lord of the Rings for unknown reasons which was outside his original scope of "games" and got immediatly shutdown by his Saudi bankers. He looked so dejected on stage the next day. No more money. No cashflow, means overwhelming operation costs come back to crush them... this is what overzealous buyouts lead too. Like you think, how stupid do you have to be to spend money you don't have... oh right XBox! Take2! The biggest change in Corporate Games Publishing needs to be an attitude shift that says "Buying Studios is NOT an investment, allocating 5 year budgets to a game is an investment" Xbox is not firing people cause it has too many projects to manage, its firing people cause they didn't plan for next years budget, cause Microsoft didn't approve their budget next year. Bad games are often released from AAA developers due to budget limits, rather than anything else. Fallout 76, Anthem, Suicide Squad... all of them probably had an executive refusing the next years budget, that results in cut content, less QA, quicker release to earn revenue etc.

[@theothertonydutch]

@@termitreter6545 It fucking baffles me how people are like "huh this can happen?". I barely pay attention to these types of things and even I know this shit happens all the fucking time. There should be a limit to how big a company is allowed to grow. When a company passes that limit, it should just be forced to pay their workers more.

[@belldrop7365]

People: Triple A game companies like EA is the worst companies in the world! Those same people: Preorders every AAA game that gets millions of marketing budget. Welcome to 2014. ... Oh, wait.

[@Carighan]

It has nothing to do with not respecting the market, but rather that there is such an expectation. Or rather, a legal freedom to dis- vs respect the market, instead of a *single* forced respect that is just the normality of doing business. The games industry needs sweeping legislation to clamp down on their practices. At the very least we need something like in Japan, where hiring someone as a temp is more or less impossible while also being just about unable to ever fire someone who isn't a temp.

[@bearwynn]

I wasn't at this meeting unfortunately, but I am a member of the IWGB Game Workers branch. Thank you for your words. I've introduced several of my colleagues to the union and most have joined thankfully, although we still have a ways to go. There is still so much anti-union rhetoric within the industry from people who have unfortunately internalised company driven messages about unions lessening workplace communication. The recent issues have helped to stem some of that rhetoric, but it is still an uphill battle.

[@PhotonBeast]

In some cases, the anti-union also seems concentrated in some disciplines and seniority levels in some places. I imagine this comes from various regional cultures, career paths, and socio-economic upbringings. Most of the pro-union types I know tend to be less senior, in the less respected disciplines, journeymen seniors, or the like. Then you have the tacitly neutral ones who are just stable enough that it doesn't seem like it occurs to them often as long as they are continually employed.

[@ItWasSaucerShaped]

part of it is definitely the techbro mentality of unions being old-fashioned. anyone in that culture bubble seems to believe the real solution is 'code is law' nonsense, and seem to be impossibly naive of the idea that they can't technology their way out of a power imbalance problem when the technology is question is almost entirely controlled by the people in power

[@cafesoftie]

One of the issues in tech is that the managers are also workers. They're often the ppl who are completely hypnotized by capitalist realism and hustle culture. Frankly, if you're a manager, either don't do regular work, or don't be a manager. You have power, because you keep the workers subjugated. What managers have isn't privilege, it's power; and they squander it when they over work themselves for their company.

[@deadlock_problem]

Unions are just a band aid cope to greater political and economic problem. Unions just make it harder to fire and hire workers along with workers negotiating their own wage. Just adds another layer of garbage ontop of a huge pile of garbage and thinking that this multi layer of garbage is now all good. Investors will still exists, AI garbage will still exists, garbage games will still be made, housing prices will still be impossibly high etc... You solve next to nothing in the long term.

[@funfettiheart]

As the partner of someone who works in the games industry, I have seen firsthand the dreadful conditions and the way freelancers are treated. There are seemingly no workers rights and the rights that do exist are ignored to get work finished ASAP. My partner worked 16 hour days, 7 days a week for 9 MONTHS because management overpromised to shareholders. He was a junior preforming mid-senior duties for the same pay. He was so burnt out by the end of it that he slept for 3 days straight when he finally quit. And once he quit? His boss spread the rumour that he'd taken too much of his unlimited PTO so he'd been fired. Watching the games industry from the outside is horrifying. The expectation that everyone will just keep working unpaid overtime until they collapse just for some shareholder somewhere to get an extra dollar is HORRIFYING. I hope the industry unionises more so they can enact widespread change, but until then I hope people outside the industry start to recognise how bad it is in there.

[@omni774]

"Too much" flex time? Lol not really unlimited then is it? Sounds like a trap by management

[@funfettiheart]

@@omni774 it was :(

[@omni774]

@@funfettiheart ive had a couple of employers who did the same - according to the HR scientists it results in employees taking fewer days off.

[@bluewickedburner]

Within 5 years there aren't going to be any gamedevs, they will all be replaced by some AI driven bot. EVery "industry" that has been replaced by something else had all the same signs as the gamedev industry. Today you can have some large language system design a building complete with all the development and construction documents insuring everything is code compliant, it can't write game code? Anyone linking their future to being a gamedev has already gone all in on a deadend job.

[@screwdriver1337]

@@bluewickedburner I don't in what world the systems you're describing exist. But in my world of gamedev there are no tools that can generate anything even remotely resembling a usable product or an asset. And that's not changing any time soon. The existence of concept artists has been jeopardized by the image generators - that's true. But only because people in management have no idea how actual creative process works. The same can be said about most other aspects of gamedev: scammers making the "AI-tools" have no idea what the industry really needs in order to increase productivity. Instead they decide to emphasize flashy images and videos hoping to fool the C-suite who are making the decisions without understanding how they games are made.

[@FullMetalLuffy]

As an adult i resent and mourn the monster the games industry has become since being a kid, or more accurately how i'm finally seeing the monster that was always there behind the curtain.. But as an adult, i am thankful for outlets like PMG that can help navigate wisely the mess that is still, under the dredg, my favourite hobby

[@boxhead6177]

I resent the monster that the "celebrity" CEO in all sectors has become 8 figure pay cheques that reward aggressive equity buying and budget slashing cause it moves profit numbers at the right month of the year to give the CEO his bonus cheque. Like how is a company suppose to support long term goals, when the CEO is rewarded for short term goals.

[@Khronogi]

@@boxhead6177 Thats a byproduct of the system we choose to engage in. Stock market means people will invest outside of their communities into a company, not because they believe in the company or it's product (putting your money where your mouth is) but because number go up. If number don't go up then retirement fund not get big. We've essentially enslaved ourselves to that system.

[@FullMetalLuffy]

@@boxhead6177 Exactly this. It's not enough to just make product to meet demand and get a tidy amount of money to pay everyone involved and fund more - has to be this all or nothing profit void for the top of the chain, damn everyone else or what that really costs

[@PhotonBeast]

@@boxhead6177 That's the game though, no pun in tended. Neither the CEO nor shareholders want or care about long term goals; money now and line go up. And especially considering how many companies are run, it's a self-reinforcing cycle - many big companies run off shareholder investment and so NOT chasing shareholder value means those shareholders invest their money elsewhere. And of course, many C-levels are rewarded with shares themselves so when they talk about shareholder value, they should be included in that because they are DIRECTLY benefiting from that value changing. By contrast, Nintendo and many other Japanese video game companies. There's a ton of reasons why they haven't seen many layoffs and yet, undeniably, are successful and some might argue more successful. There's more of a focus on long term goals, less of a focus on pure capitalistic profits, and legally, it's very very hard for Japanese companies to actually lay people off. They are require to try and develop and improve employees, for instance, or the company needs to be in direct threat of insolvency, before layoffs can occur.

[@metallsnubben]

@@FullMetalLuffyYeah the crazy thing once share prices is the #1 priority is, not only is "a profit" not enough, not only is "a growing profit" not enough, but you need like... "a growth rate of the profit that keeps increasing fast enough that investors could see their money grow faster this way than putting it somewhere else" Hence why Microsoft shut down studios that were MONSTROUSLY successful proportionally to the resources spent - Hi-Fi Rush made millions in profit and that's too small a percentage of Microsofts total turnaround, or something. Much better to spend billions on studios that COULD make new billions (but probably won't...) cause that makes the potential jackpot big enough to turn heads

[@Minya40]

I don't know if it's because of cultural differences (I'm from Finland) but it sounds so odd to me to hear someone say "they feel radicalized" and then just talk about unionizing. That's not radical, that's how things should be! Things are not perfect here for sure, but it's a pretty common thing to hear how unions are negotiating worker's rights, and most industries use standard worker's rights agreements that the unions have negotiated for them. That being said, the video game industry here only got a union of their own somewhat recently, and I think it's an offshoot of the engineer's union. So it's pretty new and I don't think membership numbers are nearly as high as in some other industries (google says that 59-69% of Finnish workers are in a worker's union). Unions are not radical, they're there to protect workers, and I hope more people in the game industry (especially in the US) start to see their value soon.

[@PhotonBeast]

Some of it is cultural, yes. Speaking as an American, there's been decades long efforts to mis-represent unions, often in the name of worker's rights, improving the economy (eg business rights), and the like. You also have regional differences - the tech bro "I can do it myself" mentality can leak into some areas of the industry. And then, underneath it all, there is the idea of the protestant work ethic which has had dramatic influence throughout American history.

[@PeopleMakeGames]

Oh I actually meant I felt radicalized enough that I'd agreed to speak at a union meeting, rather than just report on unions from a distance, which felt like some kind of boundary being crossed in my professional life. But yes, on top of this, the UK and Finland have very different relationships with unions, you're right! Margaret Thatcher will do that to you. -Chris

[@wavesofbabies]

You have to understand that corporations have spent billions, probably trillions of dollars trying to deligitimize unions, demonize unions, and take power away from unions. And that might not have been possible in Finland due to your laws, but they sure as shit due it everywhere they can. Unions are not radical. But corporations sure have spent entire countries' GDP's to make them seem that way.

[@wavesofbabies]

You have to understand that just because Finland either has a culture or laws from corporations demonizing, deligitmizing, depowering, and/or breaking up unions, doesn't mean that's true of everywhere. Corporations have spent billions, maybe even trillions to make Unions seem radical instead of the norm.

[@LiraeNoir]

Oh, glad to see I'm not the only one to have some culture clash about that.

[@cameroncook6643]

This video hits hard with the loss of ksp2's team

[@jm56585]

Honestly that game was doomed from the start because of dumb managerial decisions, there's no way they could've modernised the decade old source code of the original KSP and I can't fathom how many different drugs the people in management must have been high on to make that kind of decision. I think in that case the problem was more to do with the management not the layoff itself. Dumbass management dug itself in a grave and forced themselves to cancel the project. I think the real problem here is just that the game industry exists these days to make a profit, not make a good game. Because for them a shitty game is ok if it makes money, and that vision doesn't align at all with the dedicated fanbases that exist around games like KSP.

[@wavesofbabies]

A good quote I heard recently was "We have to remind CEOs that Unions are the workers compromising. Workers not compromising has historically meant showing up at the factory owner's house with bats."

[@thenoose9800]

Imo, responsible reporting and unbiased reporting are not the same. Unbiased reporting means that as little opinion is shared as possible (though it still ends up biasing towards upholding/respecting the status quo). Responsible reporting is being open and honest in your reporting, still sticking to facts, not hiding your preferences, and, in fact, standing up for what you believe in and ensuring that you don't uncritically spread the claims of those in power. People Make Games are responsible reporters.

[@LiraeNoir]

And way too often, especially in North America, "unbiased" is code for "cover our asses". Like when a politician respond to a nazi, you don't end your report on what the politician said with "and now let's hear the arguments made by the opposition". No, sometimes there is such a thing as black & white. If some people are shouting abhorrent illogical insanity that have been proven incorrect for years or decades, it's perfectly fine for a journalist not to give those a megaphone. Now obviously it has to be done with care, and with the respect of ethical journalism about minimizing harm, and a journalist can't fumble it here. But that, not even a trend now it's more like a tradition, of always presenting both sides of an argument without butting in with facts and context, is maddening to me.

[@mikeharman4257]

Although this was purely an opinion piece with a clear political message using cherry picked data and a very simplified view of how things actually work. I'm not sure how he thinks he is qualified to "fix" the games industry.

[@PixelaDay]

@@mikeharman4257 You don't need qualifications, just a group of people united to demand better working conditions. That's the entire point

[@mikeharman4257]

​@@PixelaDay I'm all for better working conditions. But the video was titled "How to fix the games industry" - better working conditions is an improvement, but not a "fix" to even the problems he outlines in the introduction, let alone everything else he didn't even cover.

[@thenoose9800]

@mikeharman4257 You do know that unions help prevent layoffs right? Like unionization often means companies need a good reason to layoff an employee than just the almighty dollar

[@sleepylichdisease]

i'm a disabled QA professional who was affected by a soft layoff from activision in january when i couldn't return to the office with my coworkers and the company refused to work with my doctor on accommodating my needs. we were in the middle of fighting for unionization, and got it, but only after i'd lost my job. i live in the midwest, with very few other opportunities for remote games work. i don't have much to add that hasn't already been said except to say thank you, this made me very emotional.

[@FigmentForever]

As a disabled graphics designer & coder, I too was hit hard post-pandemic with the rise of “return to work” ideology. I was a 52 hr a week remote working, overflow coder for the last 5 years. As someone who literally has NO LEGS, the email I got was entitled “Time to Take a Stand & Come Back”. I…literally…can’t…stand. I wrote back, as I was one of 288 employees who were pulling the most hours & suddenly left without a job.

[@FigmentForever]

Didn’t finish: Wrote back that the poor wording alone was enough, according to disability advocates, to make a case. Sadly, I still lost the job & now fighting for my life to get SSDI before I end up on the street.

[@sleepylichdisease]

@@FigmentForever i'm so sorry. it's frankly ridiculous. my coworkers and i spent the better part of 3 years working from home and put out record breaking games, making activision record-breaking profits that they bragged about in every company-wide townhall, only to have it suddenly dismissed like it all meant nothing. these companies see us as disposable and won't stop until we fight back. unfortunately for some of us, it's too late. i was fortunate enough to get some severance, but it's running out fast with all of my medical bills, and i've been unemployed for 7 months. i don't know what my future holds, but it's not looking bright. i hope things look up for all of us, and soon. wishing you the best.

[@MountainsOfSadness]

Only just started the video, but would love to see more unions in the industry.

[@MountainsOfSadness]

Also on my wishlist: musicians unionise against companies like Spotify. It's unfortunate that the US' cultural hegemony means that their abysmal workplace culture and anti-union practices metastasize to the artistic industries of other nations.

[@luismiguelcarrasco5180]

Also the new studios should be workers cooperatives. So all the workers of that studio are in the board.

[@Juniper-22]

I really wanted to work in the games industry when I was younger, I loved the idea of it and all the way up until college it’s what I wanted to do. When Cyberpunk came out that changed things for me oddly enough, the most hyped game of a decade came out and was such a massive disappointment, but it was more than that, I heard stories of how horribly the employees were treated, how they worked 14 hour days, slept under their desks and some got divorced because they weren’t home enough to see their families. That made me realize that no matter how much I want to work in the games industry, I could never be happy doing so. I would love to see change that actually makes the industry seem livable in.

[@VikingGoblin]

As someone in the game industy who has litterally as of a week or 2 ago lost my job due to layoffs, this hits home :(

[@PhotonBeast]

I'm sorry for what it's worth. I hope you have the support you need.

[@MugenHeadNinja]

Lay-offs are a disgusting practice that should be made illegal. No one should be forced to lose their jobs for reasons out of their control or direct responsibility.

[@Ilyak1986]

@@MugenHeadNinja that's going to mean a lot less hiring going forward, and possibly more studio closures. There are always second order consequences to "it's going to be harder to undo a mistake", whether that's renting to the wrong tenant, hiring the wrong employee, etc. "At Will" employment works b/c it means people can take more risks. Something doesn't work out? Okay, great, relationship's over. More openness to remote work would do a world of good, though.

[@gmc9987]

Watching Microsoft shutter Tango Gameworks and then less than a week later announce that the future is smaller, well-made games like Hi-Fi Rush was pretty nauseating. I can't imagine how it must have felt to be one of the former employees of Tango having to listen to that announcement.

[@boop0122]

Lmao

[@firelion3487]

Years ago, when DoubleFine got aqquired by Microsoft for xbox game studios, i was actually kinda excited by it. Psychonauts's development was really fraught with issues and from how the developers were talking about it, it seemed that microsoft really did just want to help doublefine make their games. Not to mention Xbox putting most of these games on gamepass, making them a better budget option for consumers. As ive graduated high school and learned more about what this actually meant in terms of controlling a studio and how dramatically horrifying it is on a large scale, ive come to disdain what gamepass stands for. I have fear that stellar games like Hi-Fi Rush can be squashed in a moment in spite of its wild success and loyal following. Im feeling a little radicalized myself.

[@TheOrian34]

I've dislike the concept of gamepass since its inception.

[@Keeereeejou]

seeing companies get bought out purley for gamespass is just so disheartening and to see people cheer for these giant corporate entities make the industry smaller

[@Its-Tonal-Whiplash]

"He was more than a hero, he was a union man" - Chief Miles O'Brien Thank you for speaking up on this topic Chris, PMG continues to be a shining beacon of hope and accountability in the games industry. Keep up the good work PMG, you're all legends in my book.

[@JackBrayer]

May as well throw in the VFX industry into this pool too :(

[@borismuller86]

AI VFX is a future I’m already dreading.

[@Gary-Seven-and-Isis-in-1968]

Make a product that people want to buy and it makes a profit. No crisis.

[@nathangomez4409]

I wasn't expecting a full-on 'seize the means of production' kinda speech but I'm so glad you had the guts to go there.

[@LETSGOOOO484]

As a member of the IWGM for many years, thank you for coming and speaking. So many of us feel voiceless atm, especially with how many of us work for giant billion pound companies with little to show for it. People make games already had my support, but after this I'm patron for life. Thank you comrades ❤

[@hrnekbezucha]

I'd love to see this kind of talk being presented to people who *aren't* in an union yet. To make them see the power of collective action.

[@Stjaernljus]

hire people, looks like growth fire people, looks like profits investors are happy because they are so easily fooled by numbers.

[@TheExileFox]

More money than sense...

[@Ashtarte3D]

As a former games journalist the industry radicalized me a little over a decade ago during the era of Online Passes and the real start of all the anti-consumer practices we have today. I just couldn't cover these companies consistently doing whatever they could to screw over players and it has only gotten worse and more insidious over the years. At this point I refuse to support any major third party publisher like Ubisoft, EA, Take Two and the like. Only once in a blue moon is there even a "AAA" game I'm disappointed I will miss out on with my policy. But honestly, it has made my gaming experience so much better because the indie scene is where all the best ideas are coming from. EA would never have given us games like Balatro, Animal Well or Slay The Princess. And those are only some of the greats from the past 6-ish months.

[@TheExileFox]

I can never support anything with connections to Take Two because they tried to kill off modding games. Single player games. Out of 4 separate mods to bring a different multiplayer experience to GTAV only one survived and it was not even the good one (it has gotten better since, but I dispise Lua so for some of us, this loss was immense)

[@darkrai3110]

This was such a lovely speech! It is so damn important, and I am happy you shine more light on this, directly. As always I am so happy to see actual subtitles from you, and not just the autogenerated ones. Stay on this, hold your stance with every worker, and continue being awesome!

[@imTofuDragon]

We need governmental reform (here in the USA). Worker rights are severely neutered and corporations are going to keep us that way unless we vote. So young ppl. Please effin vote if you can

[@renaigh]

your vote was already bought. There will be no adequate reform through the already compromised electoral system.

[@bearwynn]

believe it or not but unions have even less power and rights in the UK than the USA, that's what we are getting shafted by here

[@mattishii]

Vote for who? Biden, Trudeau, Starmer? Joining a union would do a hell of a lot more for workers rights than voting for neoliberal true believers. Like sure if you want to become a 1 issue voter and you want that issue to be LGBT rights then those are fine votes. But for the issue of labor rights (or say, Palestine), votes really dont matter because there is broad agreement across the aisle and making voting the central action of your politics is an empty gesture

[@_remblanc]

Voting alone ain’t solving things (although you still should vote to push towards whatever helps solve the issues that you pursue)

[@vidamate09]

Ah yes, the corpse or the felon that has a history of..... not paying workers..

[@SullyWar]

Literally just got notified that I'm getting laid off and went on KZbin and this appeared in my notification (Credits to them at least they're letting me stay on their payroll for a few more months to look around for other jobs in the meantime)

[@PhotonBeast]

I'm sorry, for what it's worth. I hope you have the support you need.

[@Iscannon]

I got laid off from a big UK developer at the end of last year and finding a job since then has been a nightmare

[@neomorphosallomorphis7395]

I see people in the comments saying they support "indie" studios instead of AAA, but you have to know a studio being small doesn't prevent it at all from being lead the same way a AAA is. On top of that, the selfproclaimed "indies" often are published by a publisher and owned by a single person or another company, making it also financially tied to the very same ties that harm classic AAA studios.

[@R1ver7th]

The reporting you do is so important. I want to thank you for all the amazing work you guys do. ❤

[@walksinthedarkness]

"Line must go up." - the people who control the money in the industry demand that their invests continue to make money and not just incremental growth but exponential growth year on year. Someone needs to step in and make them realise that although this is a fun industry, it's still an industry where workers are needed in order to create and sell their products and without them there is no industry. If the games are crap then people vote by not buying their crappy games and in most instances those games aren't good not because of the programmers but because of the people above them who are basically being told that their game must make not just as much money as possible but all of the money so it needs to have versions available on release and needs to have microtransactions and season passes. It's the money people who are ruining the industry.

[@dom1310df]

Don't be driven by investors that only want more money. Be an indie (and stay one),

[@walksinthedarkness]

@@dom1310df Make a product which sells whilst treating the people who help create and sell the thing honestly and fairly.

[@Khronogi]

Thats a byproduct of our system. The stock market encourages a person to take their wealth and invest it outside of their community in order to maker their retirement fund go up. A large part of people are putting their money into funds and they generally aren't investing in companies they believe in, they are investing in ones that make number go up. So you are absolutely right. But the solution is to stop participating in the stock market and start locally investing.

[@iainawatson]

Greed isn't just wanting more money. Everyone wants that. It's being so hungry and frenzied for it that you fuck over every else AND YOURSELF trying to get it.

[@SeekNoise]

Thanks Chris and Quintin! It was really inspiring to have you there and hear Chris speak!

[@capcr_owo]

As someone new to the industry that just got laid off at the start of the year, this talk made me break down crying. I've been scared, depressed, and the job market wants nothing to do with me. It's difficult not to just give up altogether.

[@nicolasbergeron-doucet1798]

A HUGE thank you to the whole team for making all the work you do. As someone who just lost my job as a game designer, it can feel hopeless sometimes, but this has given me hope that our work that we love will make it through this hard pass

[@RossLlewallyn]

Thank you for doing this. You say at the top that it feels like a bold move, but with a channel called "People Make Games", this feels right in line. I have deeply appreciated folks at Waypoint/Remap, Polygon, and elsewhere increasingly talking about and supporting these efforts. I won't pretend to understand the nuances of (oh god it really is this) ethics in video game journalism. But I do know that we all have opinions and perspective, and it informs our work. It's valuable to keep distance sometimes to get a fair picture, but it also feels so important invest energy and passion into what you care about.

[@olninyo]

yes. I happily pay my IWGB dues to not only support game workers, but also other gig workers engaged in the class struggle that everyone who relys on a wage is part of.

[@HarryE22]

I'm fond of James Stephanie's Sterling's gag of referring to Andrew Wilson as Android Wilson.

[@foob4thought]

Thank god for her! Rejoice!

[@LiraeNoir]

Thank god for them!

[@Thor110]

It's about time we reviewed the reality of capitalism again, humanity cannot chase profits forever, eventually they will dry up or someone will take control, work together or be worked together.

[@khamjaninja.]

I was watching an interview with Yahtzee Croshaw and Nick Calandra (now of Second Wind, but then freshly-fired from Escapist) and they had an insightful observation: In our current system, it's not enough to have growth. You need to have infinite growth. You need to be able to show more growth each year than the year before. If your company grew 10% in value last year, then you need to grow 11% this year - or you're a stagnating/failing business. This is especially a problem in the gaming industry, which is dominated by large ownership groups that buy up and own everything. These ownership groups view the studios and companies on their books purely as investment assets. And at the end of the fiscal year, they take a look at all their assets, rank them, and cull the ones at the bottom. The specific situations of each of those assets don't matter. There are no mitigating factors on a banksheet. The decisions being made are not about planning or strategy. They're not about what the current status of those assets or where their future lies. And they're certainly not about building a long-term vision for the company as a whole - or, god help us, in order to fulfill some sort of artistic goal. It's simply about crossing off the lowest performers - sell them off if you can, salvage them for scrap if you can't - to improve the numbers in our ledger. That's why Microsoft kills studios out of nowhere, seemingly without rhyme or reason. It's not about their successes or failures. It's not about the future of those studios or of Microsoft. It's not about the expenses the studios cost or even the profits the studios make. They may be successful. They may be profitable. They may have great future potential. But at present, according to this ranking based on the metrics that we use, they're near the bottom. And if we get rid of this guy, this guy, and these guys, then the overall metric improves. This doesn't feel like a wise way to manage businesses - and it's not. Ownership groups are working with such streamlined, simplified data that they can't make anything more than generalizations and broad strokes to guide their decisions. Companies like this _have_ to think this way - they have no other choice. It simply isn't possible to delve down individually into every single one of their assets to understand their business models and current status, then translate all those understandings upwards into a complex and accurate composite picture of the company as a whole. It'd be like if your brain had to consciously be aware of every muscle and ligament in your body to be able to walk. And these companies have to show infinite growth to their own shareholders, too. This is kind of a problem that exists everywhere in modern capitalism, but the tech industry and very much the gaming industry are overrun by this trend.

[@generaltom6850]

Yeah, especially with the “AI” revolution that’s coming. What will happen to the people who can and most probably will be replaced by machine learning and machines.

[@belava82]

The reality of capitalism is that game sales are enormous but Western studios are collapsing left and right because they stopped creating a good product for their customers and started creating slop. Concord lost easily $400 million. Dragon Age - 150-200 million. Starfield 300 million easily etc. etc. etc. And no, communism or socialism will not solve issues like that. Communist countries had their entertainment industries but all of them were rated on profit basis. Good old profit that entertainment made for government which spent it on things like tanks or bombs. And if your studio was unprofitable for some time or government didn't like what you did - you might be "reorganized", your creative leaders would be put into jail or threw out of professional organization which they had to belong just to be able to work. So those leaders would have to go and find another work, for example on a factory floor at the conveyor belt. And all those simple entertainment workers would start working under government assigned people who might be awful at what they do, but they are at least loyal. And there were no real unions. All unions were government controlled and full of BS.

[@MrShikaga]

Cheers, really appreciate your advocacy. How does it work if you are part of the union when you join a company? Do all your colleagues also need to be in the union, or is there a benefit to just you being a member? How do you mention your membership at interview time?

[@SilkSutures]

In the UK you're covered by the union regardless of whether anyone else in your workplace is or if the union is recognised there. You'll still have access to legal teams and reps. When it comes to interviews you don't have to mention it and they shouldn't ask. In our union we manually connect people from the same workplaces and help them organise but you can join as just yourself and even as a freelancer

[@christophermeans]

As a member of the games industry, I want to thank you for making this video. Things are getting darker by the day and unions are our best way out.

[@morbid1.]

EA did own share buyout to boost value for shareholders to such amount it would pay salaries for all laid off workers for like 20 years... this is the level of greed we talk about. Not even mentioning that those c-level assholes take more money per year than most AAA game has budgets for multi year projects

[@Bermeslivre]

Ex-IWGB member here - probably the best organized union in the games industry in Britain. Nothing but good experiences with them in the short term I was in Britain.

[@lauop8640]

I think we are lucky has an industry to have you guys there. Thanks for all the great work. I always share all your videos with friends working in video game because you are doing an important job for our messy industry. Thanks for all the hard work

[@idanlevi8108]

as an 18 year old game devoloper I look at the state of this indistry and currently I don't want to join it. I don't want to worry about my job security or be forced to make a boring game. I will continue to make games in my bedroom but I wish the game developers will take the power they rightfully deserve and maybe one day in the future to even join the game indestry

[@croopercrat]

As a computer science student, joining the video games industry had always been a big nope for me due to the terrible conditions I've been hearing about forver. I love video games, I make them as a hobby and I've wanted to make them since I was a child but I don't see any way I'd choose that nightmarish path. Especially when there are so many better tech industries out there. It'd be irresponsible for my life and those that depend on me. And yeah, I've had this discussion within my circle of friends from game jams and its the same for a lot of people. It sucks to see that very enthusiast person you knew from years ago, the one with all the good ideas, having decided to throw away that dream. There's enough money in the industry for all these people, for all the risks and experimentation but alas, it's afterall the 21st.

[@nikolatasev4948]

The work conditions have improved a lot during the last 15 years - at least in NA and Europe. It's night and day. I've met several sunrises in the office grinding at important versions. I've spent a lot of weekends in the office. But in the last 5 years no overtime was ever required of me. Things are getting better, at least for overtime. Even in Poland, things need improvement, but are far better than they were before. Job security is another matter entirely. This was just large corpos judging the market wrong, overhiring, choosing wrong ideas, themes and content, and then needing to cut jobs because the bottom fell off.

[@syllvenwoodblah6655]

force diversity over quality and skill and this is what you get super simple and easy to understand

[@TomasCordilheira]

We have to do what the actors and writers guild did it about AI in their craft. Each and every person staying in a company that uses AI without regulation is killing it self in The long Run. Today its the writting, tomorrow the coding, Them the art...

[@jonh2853]

As an employee in this industry, now in my 40s, I think every day about how the heck can I get out. I don't want to make games anymore. I'm tired of job hunting every year. Moving every year. Learning a new team, new colleagues, new project - every few years. It's exhausting. I just want to WORK. Every time I get booted from a project shutdown, or a team shutdown, or a company closure, I have the same question I pose myself, "Why the fuck are you still doing this?" Tired of it. I wanted to make games. All I've done in the last 10 years is make resumes and portfolios.

[@RyanBeardy]

I loved the start of your your speech about something having been changed, being radicalized by your time reporting in the games industry. Thank you for speaking out and humanizing these people that work hard each and every day affected both directly by the job losses, but also by those persevering and sticking together in this harsh climate these CEO types have created in this industry. Thank you for advocated for the workers and their rights. This was a beautiful moment I'm glad yall get to share on the channel.

[@grahamwalker2168]

Really well said, Chris. People Make Games! The structure is nothing without the product- the product does not exist without the worker.

[@scottbrayton9484]

The answer is the same as it every was, unionization

[@aturchomicz821]

Bullshit, Thatcher killed the coal industry even though it was unionized. Why wouldnt the same happen here?

[@billwibbly1492]

I will never cease to be blown away by the depth and eloquence that you guys can bring to any conversation in the games industry. Thank you for what you guys do, holy shit.

[@hwkeyser]

We need the unions to include Tool/Engine engineers and backend engineers that can lockout studio executives from end running the tools and servers around the people that made them their games. EA does layoffs? Stop maintenance on the servers for FIFA Ultimate Team. Want to layoff three studios to outsource to another, sorry, your company can't use Unity for 5 years.

[@SilkSutures]

In the UK we do! We have some in the IWGB GW and some prefer to join UTAW

[@PhotonBeast]

The challenge is that the executives aren't the ones pushing the buttons and second, often the licenses et al from those are between companies and not employees. Which means unless there's laws supporting unions, something like that would just end up in an lawsuit against the employee and, most likely, the employee would lose.

[@TheErikjsm]

think that would create massive ip/copyright violations. you as a developer of anything dont own said thing if its made for a corporation just like the guy who made the house you live in doesnt own it. not a lawyer or anything but im not sure it could be included. fair and stable working conditions however....

[@WhiteManBehindADesk]

This rules! Proud Patron here! Solidarity to the games workers. ✊

[@nicolasgalipeau3632]

Please, please, please put more of the spotlight on worker cooperatives! Union are great as in you need sometimes to fight fairly in a struggle of power. We need company structures that minimize the inherent conflict that exists in companies and put power back in the hand of the workers! (Excellent video, btw ❤, also the international day for cooperatives is in 3 days!)

[@TheAtticus82]

Phenomenal talk. Would love to hear more about organizing around this cause in the future. We need to send a firm message-corporations are set to destroy us all if they remain unchecked.

[@hannahflynn1536]

I was likewise struck by the phrase "ground it doesn't water". I am doing whatever I can to water the ground. I refuse to keep working in an industry that functions the way this one does!!

[@wormoSTEEZE]

thank you for this. I was laid off in May 2023, and the hardest part was that my employer convinced me that it was my fault. it took me 4 days short of a year to find work again, and it wasn't in the games industry. I can't blame anyone for wanting to stay in the games industry, but I can say first hand that I also don't blame anyone for leaving. I hope that those who stay can find a way to band together to stand up for what games workers deserve.

[@matteomangioni3160]

Really great speech, I agree on all accounts. As an aspiring game developer that's currently studying to join this industry I often find myself wondering about if I'll be able to withstand the crunch, the constant possibility of losing my job, the idea that the projects I've poured my soul into may be cancelled weeks before release because someome in a boardroom deemed them not profitable enough. But today you've reminded me that it doesn't need to be that way, that the time I'm taking to study and develop these skills IS my bargaining power and not just a prerequisite for joining an industry that could throw me away at any moment. Thanks for giving me hope. ❤

[@KevinRiggle]

Really feel like this goes for EVERYTHING in tech right now

[@luismiguelcarrasco5180]

Just to add: If you want to make a new studio, please consider making it as a workers cooperative where all the workers have the same ammount of shares (and if you leave you have to return the shares you are given when you start working there). This doesn mean equal salary, but that there wont be investors, the decisions will be taken with the approval of all the workers, the ceo is choosen between the workers and not the investors, etc.

[@8Paul7]

Sounds nice in theory. Usually works badly in practice. It requires very specific type of people to work.

[@porridgeramen7220]

Big ups to the unions! I work in Irish animation industry, which is unfortunately not unionised. Because our industry is sustained by American outsourcing unionization could cause the industry to bleed due as Americans take their money elsewhere. Like how Hollywood studios are looking to Atlanta as their next home to combat Hollywood's unionisation efforts. This is a call not to preserve just our own jobs, but to deepen our radicalism andfurther raise our consciousness on these issues.

[@TacticalFlukie]

I am in college right now, and have decided to pursue cybersecurity because despite my true passion being games, analysis, and design, I am fearful that if I ever joined the industry I would simply be abused, have my passion taken and then discarded, deadending me with no job and no path to take to be able to pay for the essentials.

[@Ptpptp31]

Spent almost 4 years in the industry and was part of the layoffs from last year, I've been since struggling to think about what should I do with my life and if I should even go back to it. Thanks for speaking up, workers unite there's a way out of this.

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

I appreciate the moment you take for people without the privilege to enter the games industry at all. There have been a number of times in my life I've passionately wanted to join a creative team and help make something special, but as soon as I learned more about the reality of the work, I knew it would never be safe or possible for me to stake my entire life on a gamble, especially when it would likely cost not just money but mental and physical health for many years. Media is such an enormous part of all of our lives but for the people who actually make it to never have stability and safety even after making huge success for their employers is obviously just wrong.

[@K-dex]

As someone who has worked hard these past five years to get my Game design and Dev degree, from a uni that celebrates Engles; I can only weep for the current state of the industry, as me and my peers flounder getting out there. Thank you for this video, we needed it ❤

[@edelmeister.]

Yes! Get political! Standing up for and with the workers who make the games we love is what us game enjoyers need to do. It doesn't make you a worse journalist. It makes you human.

[@SpoopySquid]

Unions are like condoms: the more someone insists you don't need one, the more you really need to get one

[@JeffBilkins]

It goes bad when it an industry changes from a specialized way to make a living to an investment product.

[@MarioNotBros]

What an excellent talk. Thank you for uploading this! I was someone with dreams to work in the games industry, and like you mentioned, once I realized what a terrible mess this industry is, I moved on to different goals in life. It is a massive shame to know there are far more talented people than me who probably reached the same conclusion and moved on.

[@CaelReader]

Every Worker, a Member of the Board!

[@PandaJerk007]

Great video! This idea needs to spread. --- However people also need to understand it will take personal sacrifice for unions to succeed. Instead of being laid-off from your dream job, you may need to quit your dream job. Unions require dedication and people willing to follow through with action. If your union demands something from the company and the company doesn't accept, then you may need to make a large personal sacrifice to teach that company a lesson.

[@CrossAlien]

As someone who has maintained many friends across the industry and ended up not going into it due what I saw my friends dealing with, I deeply appreciate the efforts here to protect those in the industry which in-turn can spread to other industries. Hats off to Chris, Annie, & Quintin for all their hard work. Also, hell yeah to the person rocking the Against Me! and Descendents patches, great music taste.

[@oposdeo]

The unfortunate thing is that foolish investors look at these moment-in-time metrics like quarterly earnings to choose where to put their dollars, and the company has a fiduciary responsibility to the share holders, and so bad decisions will always be made. I really dislike the stock market and all the capitalistic nightmares that stem from its toxic roots. Well, anyways, if the Government won't do anything about it, a union is a nice way to help combat the issue. Good talk.

[@DeliriumWartner]

Hell yeah man. I think a lot of people became radicalized over COVID, as we realized how little our lives mattered to those in charge. I don't work in the games industry, but power to the people, in every space

[@tenderdecay]

As a game developer who are still trying to make their way into the industry, it has felt nearly impossible to make my way into the industry if it weren't for indie game devs and spaces. It's heartbreaking to see professionals I admire losing their jobs in the past year alone, despite having poured their whole self into the games they've made. Not to mention how some of them were laid off only months into working their job, which I feel should be straight up illegal yet this is the reality we're living in. Thank you for shedding more light onto this problem!

[@Barkingstingray]

This speech is honestly just universally true across all industries in the world today, I am not sure how but the labor force needs a modern upheaval to get itself coordinated. Someone like you who is outside of the industry but knows its nuances and can go location to location making the argument for it. Its impossible to talk about this stuff internally, the fear of repercussions is too high so starting the conversation is gated, so having someone external to kickstart it is at least something. Thank you for what you do, i hope for a better tomorrow

[@MinoriGaming]

As a wise person once said. “Corporations don’t just want some of the money. They want all of the money.”

[@Yamartim]

my man that's so based, whenever americans and europeans are willing to say things such as class struggle and get to the base of the issue it gives me so much hope that things can actually change, all we gotta do is spread this way of thinking!

[@DuckTheFinn]

The inevitable contradiction of capitalism.

[@moondog548]

There's a whole lot of us that have been radicalized by... everything lately.

[@Cow-Moth-With-A-CRT-Head]

Holy heck, why haven't I been getting any notifications on your videos? This is the first one that's popped up in like months. Edit: looking at the videos, it looks like I havent gotten a notification since the Disco Elysium vid!

[@frabcus]

Is there a way for fans to join a games industry union to show our support? So pay monthly, have some kind of affiliate gamer membership, and maybe get some perks (newsletter, access to talks etc)? I feel that could be a good way of funding this particular industry, without expecting developers to pay for the staffing unions need.

[@Veritanky]

As working class person- who had to live on my own almost straight after high school, went to uni juggling job and commitments - still changed career/specialisation later- its been almost 8 years ive been learning on my own to get on the "junior/hireable" level. And last year finally i felt like im ready- all this sacrifice of social life, work and health and more finally will end and i can start building my career and stop living paycheck to paycheck while learning. Just to everything crash down and im not sure if ill ever be able to get in. My 20s spent working my ass off and learning it all, health went bad due to overwork and here i am hearing that maybe in year or two itll get better. Its crushing.

[@towmaterlover]

CLASS WAR. CLASS WAR.

[@zach_attakk]

It's not "people make GAMES" it's "PEOPLE make games."

[@3chambergamer]

The games industry is really sad right now and absolutely needs better rights. I wish every game dev could function and flourish as an independent business.

[@ShazySoft]

Forget staying in the games industry, try getting in as an outsider! The industry is so unbelievably exclusionary, it's unreal. My whole experience trying to get a job in games has been where all of my worst job hunting experiences come from. For reference, I have released multiple games: one a fully realized commercial product that I did literally everything for (art, music, sfx, programming, design, writing, production, bizdev, marketing; the whole gamut), the others made in a custom game engine I built by myself in C++ and SDL. I'm self-taught, and I've been making games for decades now. God forbid any of that matter to this industry, though. I had one experience where I was brought in for multiple interviews, then asked to do a design test... then they ghosted me. Another where the guy bragged about crunching the shit out of his miserable looking employees. I spent all of last year trying as hard as I could to get a job in the industry. I got one interview all year, and didn't end up getting the job. I was being ghosted on INTERNSHIP POSITIONS for things I have been doing for DECADES. It annihilated the confidence I had in my work, something I'm still working on recovering from. Salt in the wound is, I know people who have been able to make it into the industry, with FAAAAR less experience/smaller portfolios than me. People who have told me flat out, "you should have my job, not me." People who were not yet born when I started making games. I'm so burnt by this industry, and I haven't even gotten in yet. I don't think I will ever try to work in it again, unless it's my own company I'm working for. Right now I'm working on another game, as well as a physics degree so I can go and work on nuclear reactors or some cool shit. I'm doing full time school, full time solo dev, and a part time job, and it is less frustrating and difficult than last year.

[@dark_nation_7]

It sounds like a case of bad luck, to be honest; I got my first shoe-ins in the industry though my school contacts. As in many things in life, it's not what you know, it's who you know. That being said, as someone who has been working in this industry for 10 years, I do not recommend getting into the games industry in its current state. Working on games as a job I find often sucks the fun out of it, which can be very depressing. Good luck with your future endeavors.

[@kaneqost]

I think the 10 years part is the most relevant ​@@dark_nation_7

[@RADkate]

you see the your first mistake was not being a black woman, most studios actually dont hire by skill, all the layoffs and horrible games as of recent are Just the repercussions of their great hiring process

[@drakinkoren]

I studied Game Dev at uni, and honestly, for as hard as the work was, it was really disheartening to just constantly see layoff and mistreatment, minimal job security everywhere... I didn't complete it and went back to working in IT. Edit to add: It's great seeing union getting going, hope you get to that critical limit and start really pressing these issues!

[@spacehoppa86]

I feel like this could be a summary of how all industry is broken/could be fixed. The power imbalance needs to be fixed everywhere.

[@Zuluknob]

Step 1: Do not accept contracts from big game publishers, they will fuck you over. Step 2: Do not go public with your game company, shareholders will fuck you over. Step 3: ??? Step 4: Profit!

[@Monkeyzforever]

I agree with all of this. I was so sick and disgusted by what happened to those three game studios because it was horrific but even more so because I know it will happen again, because a number on a spreadsheet going slightly higher is more important than people's lives and their creative endeavours. That the beautiful creativity of all these people is viewed as something to be ruthlessly monetised - sometimes even destroyed by a tax write off. Creative people will always be exploited unless we fight back. I'm not a part of the games industry, but I know what it's like to have my passion exploited, and I want to help. On the positive side of things, we have the wonderful Outersloth funding initiative that makes my heart happy. We need more people with integrity in charge of money, because look at the good they can do with it.

[@40GallonTophat]

This is my favorite video of yours so far. Keep up the good work!

[@knightedtemplar]

Honestly, the thing that made me give up on even thinking about a job in the games industry were the ungodly hours. People cannot work the hours that are required from studios these days. People will lose relationships, their health and perhaps even their sanity if they try to chase what the boardroom requires of them. Now I've worked beside unions in the AV world and to be honest they can seem impenetrable from the outside. The one I have worked beside is purely seniority based. i would advise any union taking that path. It just seems to create a stratified union much like you would find in a cooperate boardroom.

[@Avarn_]

Bravo, well said. Thank you for speaking out constructively about the game industry as always. Its currently trajectory is utterly unstainable. But as always, it will be the people making these games that are left to fall or price together what's left.

[@milramas]

It is so disheartening to see how bad the money people are poisoning the waters for the years to come line must go up at all costs

[@nathandts3401]

It's interesting to see people radicalised by the state of the industry I consume. I've had pretty entrenched views since 2008, but it's cool to see different routes that get people to this stage.

[@kpb7123]

This gives me hope, thank you PMG

[@NIL0S]

It's since years I don't really spend any money on AAA anymore... Indie is where it's at. My money anyway...

[@blueasis]

💪together we strong

[@BrandanLee]

Being indie and privately funded with a team of 5 is like flying through the flack wall in Battlestar Galactica, or a WWII fighter over Berlin. Just watching everything go down in flames around you, trying to stay on target.