New Game Developer Unionization Effort Launches

Game development is a long, arduous process. The hours can be grueling, and the work, more often than not, can be thankless. As the cost of developing major, AAA titles increases, publishers constantly look for new corners to cut, and crunch has become an all too common occurrence. As such, calls for developer unionization have been made for some time now, but a new push called the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (or CODE) could finally make that a reality. The effort is being led by the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and they’re one of the most powerful unions in the country.

Nearly 220,000 workers are employed by the video game industry in America. As the video game industry continues to grow, that number will only continue to increase. The CODE movement began as a result of a joint effort between CWA and a grass-roots group of game developers known as Game Workers Unite. In an interview with Vice, Emma Kinema, a co-founder of Game Workers Unite, commented on the partnership.

“The CWA is a perfect fit for the game and tech industry. It has a long history of building power with media and tech and telecoms workers, and a really rich and deep history of organizing massive, national scale campaigns,” said Kinema. “To me, it’s an absolute no brainer to organize with CWA.”

Founded in 2018, Game Workers Unite has chapters in other areas of the world, as well, including the UK, Ireland, and Finland. Since their founding, they have gotten involved with a number of cases involving alleged unfair practices in the video game industry.

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It will be interesting to see what comes of the partnership between CWA and Game Workers Unite. With franchises such as Fortnite and Call of Duty both earning more than one billion in revenue last year, the industry has quickly grown beyond its once niche status. The latest generation of consoles will launch later this year, and their release will lead to increased demand for more games at higher resolutions at quicker turnaround rates. Publishers that have relied on crunch will continue to do so to keep-up with demand, unless something is done. There won’t be easy answers, but unionization could be overdue for the industry.

What do you think of the industry’s unionization efforts? Should video game developers join the CWA? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!