Devolver Co-founder: working in AAA studios breaks people and cripples destinies
Mike Wilson, a veteran of the gaming industry, believes that the corporate culture of large gaming companies is inhumane and harms their employees. Therefore, developers need their own trade union or a collective agreement with the employer.
He stated this at the GDC 2018 conference.
Wilson stressed that the widespread practice of constant overwork in the gaming industry undermines the strength of many employees, and something needs to be done about it.
“I don’t think a traditional trade union is possible because game dev is a global industry. Even in the USA, it would be necessary to create a union in each state because of different laws. If your employees are scattered across five different countries, then a union is impossible in principle.
We need to create something like a collective agreement. This is especially true for large studios, where work often just grinds people.
They spend 11 hours a day in the workplace, and often not on the orders of the boss, but because their colleagues work in the same schedule. Such a regime undermines health and destroys family life,” said Mike Wilson.
He added that indie studio teams also suffer due to heavy loads caused by a huge amount of work with a staff of 2-3 people.
“No one is interested in why exactly your game failed. People don’t think about why you didn’t have enough money or you delayed the development. For them, your studio is just another building with your name written on the facade,” Wilson explained.
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