‘Our {industry} has been strip-mined’: online game employees protest at The Recreation Awards

[ad_1] It’s the night time of the 2025 Recreation Awards, a significant {industry} occasion the place the perfect video games of the yr are topped and main publishers reveal forthcoming initiatives. Within the shadow of the Peacock theater in Los Angeles and subsequent to an enormous, demonic statue selling new sport Divinity, which might be introduced on stage later that night, stands a group of individuals in vivid purple shirts. Many are holding indicators: a tombstone honouring the “loss of life” of The Recreation Awards’ Future Class expertise growth programme; a daring, black-and-red graphic that reads “We’re Achieved Enjoying”; and “wished” posters for Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick and Microsoft CEO Phil Spencer. This can be a protest.

The protesters, who had been virtually denied entry to the general public area exterior the Peacock theater (“they knew we had been coming,” one jokes), are from United Videogame Staff (UVW), an industry-wide, direct-join union for North America that's a part of the Communications Staff of America. “We're out right here right this moment to lift consciousness of the plight of the sport employee,” says Anna C Webster, chair of the freelancing committee, within the scorching Los Angeles solar. “Our {industry} has been strip-mined for assets by these company overlords, and we figured the perfect place to lift consciousness of what’s taking place within the video games {industry} is on the fruits, the ultimate boss, because it had been: The Recreation Awards.”

Webster is referencing a number of issues right here. Greater than 40,000 layoffs have decimated the {industry} over the previous few years; simply final month, Grand Theft Auto developer RockstarGames was accused of union-busting after firing greater than 30 workers (the studio denies this, saying the staff had been leaking confidential info), and AI is being quickly injected into sport growth processes. The {industry} appears unwilling to reckon with these points.

‘They by no means appear to acknowledge the layofffs’… United Videogame Staff members protest exterior LA’s Peacock Theatre {Photograph}: Colton “Anarche99” Childrey “I lately learn {that a} three-minute trailer at The Recreation Awards prices greater than $1m,” says the union’s native secretary, Kaitlin “KB” Bonfiglio. “[Despite] the pomp and circumstance of all of this, they by no means appear to acknowledge the historic quantity of layoffs which have occurred within the {industry}.”

For the UVW, there's a core subject right here. “It’s all about greed,” Webster insists. “Anybody who works within the video games {industry} can determine that our artwork kind is being offered for components to make a couple of folks some huge cash. And so they don’t care in regards to the video games. They don’t care in regards to the artwork. They simply need their cash.”

For these working in video games, the issues plaguing the {industry} are apparent. However how can UVW make it clear that the problems {industry} employees face have an effect on gamers, too? “In the event you’re somebody who loves video video games, if you're annoyed by video games that launch buggy and are delayed messes, when you’re annoyed by video games you’re enthusiastic about getting cancelled with out warning, all of that ties again to what we’re doing right here,” treasurer Sherveen Uduwana says. “Giving us layoff protections, ensuring bosses can’t take away our healthcare, ensuring they'll’t exchange us with AI – that's going to result in higher video games for gamers and extra formidable, attention-grabbing, inventive initiatives. It’s actually a win-win for gamers and a win-win for employees.”

There’s a transparent love for the {industry} permeating by means of this group, a want to make the medium and the work they cherish even higher. The Recreation Awards is a significant night time, one that may assist prop up smaller impartial studios and spotlight unimaginable voice actors. The UVW workforce recognises that.

“Have time right this moment, and tomorrow, let’s get up and begin organising for higher employees’ rights and a greater video games {industry},” Uduwana says.