The workers at indie studio Vodeo Games have unionized, giving North America its first ever recognized game developer union. The union says leadership at Vodeo Games has voluntarily recognized the union, and that 100% of eligible employees and contractors voted in favor of unionization.
This first studio unionization could be the first of more to come, in a time where fair, safe working conditions are at the forefront of the industry's collective conscience.
The union is called Vodeo Workers United and was formed with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), an organization that works to help employees organize into unions. The union says the process was unconventional because the staff is fully remote, and over half of the union's bargaining unit is made up of independent contractors. Vodeo is a very small studio, with only 13 employees listed on the studio's website.
Vodeo Games is also a fairly new studio founded by Threes creator Asher Vollmer, that just released its first game earlier this year. The game, Beast Breaker, is a turn-based RPG with pinball physics that launched this past September on Switch, Mac, and PC.
While this is the first game studio union in North America, Vodeo Games says they were inspired by other groups working to create better working conditions for video game developers, including ABetterABK, which is made up of Activision Blizzard and King employees fighting for change.
However, unlike the reports of sexual harassment, unequal pay, and other significant issues coming out of Activision Blizzard, the employees at Vodeo say they're unionizing for other reasons. Speaking to Polygon, CWA campaign lead Emma Kinema said it's because the workers are invested in the company's success.
“They’re not organizing because there’s some big scary boss, like Bobby Kotick or someone,” Kinema said. “They’re organizing because they care so much about the work they do, and they want more of a say over how it’s done, the conditions in which they work to actually make those games that they care about.”
Vodeo Workers United tweeted similar sentiments, saying, "By ensuring more workers like us have a protected voice on the job, we can set a precedent for new industry-wide standards that will better our shared working conditions."
Across the industry, studio employees are fighting for better culture and working conditions. Just last week, IGN shared the story of Bungie's struggle for a better work culture. Bungie and Activision Blizzard are just two of the many studios in the conversation for working conditions and culture; a list that also includes Last of Us Part II dev Naughty Dog, Red Dead Redemption 2 creator Rockstar and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. The severity of the news also differs greatly from studio to studio, from the huge issues at Activision Blizzard, to Insomniac making headlines for managing to ship Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart "completely crunch free."
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
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This first studio unionization could be the first of more to come, in a time where fair, safe working conditions are at the forefront of the industry's collective conscience.
Hi!
We are workers at Vodeo Games, and today we’re thrilled to announce that we have come together to form Vodeo Workers United - the first certified union of videogame workers in North America! Organized with @CODE_CWA.
— Vodeo Workers United (@vodeoworkers) December 15, 2021
The union is called Vodeo Workers United and was formed with the Communications Workers of America (CWA), an organization that works to help employees organize into unions. The union says the process was unconventional because the staff is fully remote, and over half of the union's bargaining unit is made up of independent contractors. Vodeo is a very small studio, with only 13 employees listed on the studio's website.
Vodeo Games is also a fairly new studio founded by Threes creator Asher Vollmer, that just released its first game earlier this year. The game, Beast Breaker, is a turn-based RPG with pinball physics that launched this past September on Switch, Mac, and PC.
While this is the first game studio union in North America, Vodeo Games says they were inspired by other groups working to create better working conditions for video game developers, including ABetterABK, which is made up of Activision Blizzard and King employees fighting for change.
However, unlike the reports of sexual harassment, unequal pay, and other significant issues coming out of Activision Blizzard, the employees at Vodeo say they're unionizing for other reasons. Speaking to Polygon, CWA campaign lead Emma Kinema said it's because the workers are invested in the company's success.
“They’re not organizing because there’s some big scary boss, like Bobby Kotick or someone,” Kinema said. “They’re organizing because they care so much about the work they do, and they want more of a say over how it’s done, the conditions in which they work to actually make those games that they care about.”
Vodeo Workers United tweeted similar sentiments, saying, "By ensuring more workers like us have a protected voice on the job, we can set a precedent for new industry-wide standards that will better our shared working conditions."
Across the industry, studio employees are fighting for better culture and working conditions. Just last week, IGN shared the story of Bungie's struggle for a better work culture. Bungie and Activision Blizzard are just two of the many studios in the conversation for working conditions and culture; a list that also includes Last of Us Part II dev Naughty Dog, Red Dead Redemption 2 creator Rockstar and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red. The severity of the news also differs greatly from studio to studio, from the huge issues at Activision Blizzard, to Insomniac making headlines for managing to ship Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart "completely crunch free."
Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.
Continue reading...