2024-03-25 21:13:42
So far this year, more than 8,000 workers in the video game sector have lost their jobs worldwide. They are almost the same number of those who did so in all of 2023 according to the data collected by developer Farhan Noor and nine times more than those produced in 2022, estimated at 1,000 people per Layoffs Tracker. As a consequence, in Spain the Video Game Union Coordinator (CSVI) has emerged as a result of the “urgency” and the fact that there are “ERE everywhere every day”.
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Diego Freire, spokesperson for this newly created organization and worker at studios such as Chibig or Fictiorama, explains that, in addition, “the sector eats up the supporters club very quickly, after seven years it expels you in some way.” Freire thinks there is a need for union support, fueled by “the will of many people who have been mistreated by the industry.” He defends that growing with the protection of the CGT union and the help of SEGAP (Union of Entertainment, Graphic Arts, Audiovisuals and Paper, a section of the CGT) has allowed them to have “a structure, some guides and a way of working.”
At CSVI they have already made public two situations of massive layoffs in national companies, but they warn: “No one is safe, this is going to be our daily bread during 2024.” In recent months, Unity has laid off 25% of its staff, Riot Games 11% of its workers, Sony 8% of the video game division and Activision Blizzard, after being bought for an astronomical amount by Microsoft, 1,900 employees. . The situation even affects small studios, which, such as the Danish Die Gute Fabrik or the Spanish Campero Games, have been forced to close.
The vocation entails abuse
“Although Spain is not a super-consolidated or large industry, it employs several thousand people, and has its own problems,” defends Freire, before explaining that for this reason there are no requirements to join CSVI, they accept both self-employed workers as outsiders and at the moment those registered are developers. “Being an artist junior Among 200 people it is difficult to change the direction of a company, but the moment you are part of a union coordinator, you can change things a little more,” he says.
The main national obstacles are the lower salaries in the rest of the European Union and the United States, as well as in relation to what programmers who work in IT earn.
For the coordinator, the main national obstacles are the lower salaries in the rest of the European Union and the United States, as well as in relation to what programmers who work in IT earn. On the other hand, the fact that it is such a vocational job gives rise to “many abuses”, because “by making you feel part of something bigger than yourself, which is your dream”, you are forced to put in extra hours. Likewise, being a small sector, there is fear that the doors will close if they are not accepted under certain conditions.
Hence, two of CSVI’s objectives are, in the long term, “to achieve a collective agreement”, and in the short term “to change this mentality from the base, to make it understood that you are not fighting individually, but that it influences at a global and social level.”
What’s behind the massive layoffs?
The Coordinator considers that we are facing a “wave of massive layoffs,” which together translate into “instability and hostility for THE workers at the expense of company profits.” Freire agrees that 2023 has been an incredible year for launches, but “terrible” for work. He assures that this is a “conjunctural moment” and that we must be clear that “it also happens here, Spain is not safe from this situation.” But why are these layoffs occurring?
Several justifications are given from the affected Spanish companies. Daniel Sánchez-Crespo from Novarama commented on LinkedIn that the industry is immersed in a “structural crisis”, so in their study they were “forced to reduce the workforce.” In the case of the mobile developer Codigames, at the end of January they announced an ERE that concerns 20% of its workers, despite having obtained nine million profits in September 2023, five of which were distributed in dividends to its partners. . Meanwhile, at Pendulo Studios they have confirmed another ERE due “to production conditions”, which this time concerns 43% of the staff.
In networks, developers like David Ferriz (I will threaten) They have commented on how some “profitable companies” are “taking advantage of the situation” to “sneakily reduce their workforce.” According to Diego Freire’s vision, the problem arises from the fact that “during the pandemic there was a boom of people locked up at home playing game. Animal Crossing and it was expected that this would continue, but it has been seen that it did not”, because “perpetual growth is unsustainable”. The Government of Spain has allocated eight million euros this year in public aid to the video game sector, but this is shared with the development of podcasts and other digital content, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan of the Ministry of Culture. Only projects that have a cultural character or interest are supported, providing a maximum of 80% of their financing and up to 80,000 euros, so its design corresponds to the support of small or independent projects.
“During the pandemic there was a boom of people locked up at home playing Animal Crossing and it was expected that this would continue, but it has turned out not to,” because “perpetual growth is unsustainable.”
As a result of the slowdown, when companies like Sony don’t meet their high expectations, they lay off hundreds of people even though they continue to make profits. Furthermore, “certain dismissals will not be avoided because the regulations state that you can dismiss through ERE if your expectations are worse.” “And the truth is that at the level indie Every day they are also closing studios. Not long ago Eggnut closed, which was 15 people,” continues Freire, aware that “the publishers They are only financing video games of a certain size,” so this labor crisis is “affecting everywhere.”
Complications and benefits of unionizing
An added problem is that there is little information about how the national industry works, while in the United States there is concrete data about what employees earn compared to the average cost of living. In Spain, the reports prepared by the DEV employers’ association and the non-profit Devuego project provide “quantitative, not qualitative data”, so that it is “complicated to obtain a global and real vision” of both what the industry is like and how it is Their workers are affected by transversal struggles, which include gender, racial, class or disability biases.
These international differences are also reflected at the union level. Thus, Freire relates that while in the United States they have unions internally in companies, in Europe or Japan the situation is different. That is the reason why, when Sony laid off 900 people, American workers immediately took to the streets, in the United Kingdom they had a few days to spare, and in Japan they were sent to an outplacement program at other companies. The strike that occurred last February in France by Ubisoft workers, who demanded better salary conditions, also stands out: “They have stopped production and protested, because they can afford to do so.”
Another concern of the union is where today’s video game students will work. “They are trying to develop an indie game between five colleagues”, a model that “is unsustainable”
Aware of the importance of weaving broad networks, the Coordinator is having communications with other unions, since they believe that “solidarity between workers has to be international because the video game itself is.” In fact, some of the people involved in the project had already been part of the Spanish branch of the international organization Game Workers Unite, from which nothing more could emerge at the time.
Coordination in the face of hopelessness
The current situation implies “a polarization” of video games. On the one hand, there are titles small ones of cultural impact such as The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, and on the other hand there are great launches, the Coordinator explains. Midstream companies like MercurySteam or Tequila Works that produce titles like Blasphemous 2 with 30 or 40 people, they are the minority. Another concern of the union is where today’s video game students will work. “They try to develop a game indie between five colleagues”, a model that “is unsustainable”.
Faced with these challenges, the Coordinator is committed to “maintaining fluid communication, trying to obtain data to see how things are, continuing to help people who are in an ERE situation, because more will come,” and educating about “ basic labor rights”. “It’s a matter of not losing steam and continuing to work hard,” says Diego Freire with confidence. On a personal level, he reveals that, given “the mental load” of reading about layoffs every day, being part of CSVI allows “the mind not to go into constant depression.” And he sends an optimistic message: “We must support and be supportive of each other.”
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