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eir personal taste the creative rewards of work in the entertainment business attracts labor to the industry creating a competitive labor market that demands a high level of commitment and performance from employees industry communities such as the international game developers association igda are conducting increasing discussions about the problem they are concerned that working conditions in the industry cause a significant deterioration in employees quality of life 22 23 crunch main article crunch video games some video game developers and publishers have been accused of the excessive invocation of crunch time 24 crunch time is the point at which the team is thought to be failing to achieve milestones needed to launch a game on schedule the complexity of workflow reliance on third party deliverables and the intangibles of artistic and aesthetic demands in video game creation create difficulty in predicting milestones 25 the use of crunch time is also seen to be exploitative of the younger workforce in video games who have not had the time to establish a family and who were eager to advance within the industry by working long hours 25 26 because crunch time tends to come from a combination of corporate practices as well as peer influence the term crunch culture is often used to discuss video game development settings where crunch time may be seen as the norm rather than the exception 27 the use of crunch time as a workplace standard gained attention first in 2004 when erin hoffman exposed the use of crunch time at electronic arts a situation known as the ea spouses case 25 a similar rockstar spouses case gained further attention in 2010 over working conditions at rockstar san diego 28 29 since then there has generally been negative perception of crunch time from most of the industry as well as from its consumers and other media 30 discrimination and harassment gender main article women and video games treatment of women in the industry game development had generally been a predominately male workforce in 1989 according to variety women constituted only 3 of the gaming industry 31 while a 2017 igda survey found that the female demographic in game development had risen to about 20 taking into account that a 2017 esa survey found 41 of video game players were female this represented a significant gender gap in game development 32 33 the male dominated industry most who have grown up playing video games and are part of the video game culture can create a culture of toxic geek masculinity within the workplace 34 32 in addition the conditions behind crunch time are far more discriminating towards women as this requires them to commit time exclusively to the company or to more personal activities like raising a family 25 35 these factors established conditions within some larger development studios where female developers have found themselves discriminated in workplace hiring and promotion as well as the target of sexual harassment 36 this can be coupled from similar harassment from external groups such as during the 2014 gamergate controversy 37 major investigations into allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that went unchecked by management as well as discrimination by employers have been brought up against riot games ubisoft and activision blizzard in the late 2010s and early 2020s alongside smaller studios and individual developers however while other entertainment industries have had similar exposure through the me too movement and have tried to address the symptoms of these problems industry wide the video game industry has yet to have its me too moment even as late as 2021 35 there also tends to be pay related discrimination against women in the industry according to gamasutra s game developer salary survey 2014 women in the united states made 86 cents for every dollar men made game designing women had the closest equity making 96 cents for every dollar men made in the same job while audio professional women had the largest gap making 68 of what men in the same position made 38 increasing the representation of women in the video game industry required breaking a feedback loop of the apparent lack of female representation in the production of video games and in the content of video games efforts have been made to provide a strong stem science technology engineering and mathematics background for women at the secondary education level but there are issues with tertiary education such as at colleges and universities where game development programs tend to reflect the male dominated demographics of the industry a factor that may lead women with strong stem backgrounds to choose other career goals 39 racial see also race and video games there is also a significant gap in racial minorities within the video game industry a 2019 igda survey found only 2 of developers considered themselves to be of african descent and 7 hispanic while 81 were caucasian in contrast 2018 estimates from the united states census estimate the u s population to be 13 of african descent and 18 hispanic 40 41 42 in a 2014 and 2015 survey of job positions and salaries the igda found that people of color were both underrepresented in senior management roles as well as underpaid in comparison to white developers 43 further because video game developers typically draw from personal experiences in building game characters this diversity gap has led to few characters of racial minority to be featured as main characters within video games 44 minority developers have also been harassed from external groups due to the toxic nature of the video game culture 34 this racial diversity issue has similar ties to the gender one and similar methods to result both have been suggested such as improving grade school education developing games that appeal beyond the white male gamer stereotype and identifying toxic behavior in both video game workplaces and online communities that perpetuate discrimination against gender and race 45 lgbt in regards to lgbt and other gender or sexual orientations the video game industry typically shares the same demographics as with the larger population based on a 2005 igda survey those in the lgbt community do not find workplace issues with their identity though work to improve the representation of lgbt themes within video games in the same manner as with racial minorities 46 however lgbt developers have also come under the same type of harassment from external groups like women and racial minorities due to the nature of the video game culture 34 age the industry also is recognized to have an ageism issue discriminating against the hiring and retention of older developers a 2016 igda survey found only 3 of developers were over 50 years old while at least two thirds were between 20 and 34 these numbers show a far lower average age compared to the u s national average of about 41 9 that same year while discrimination by age in hiring practices is generally illegal companies often target their oldest workers first during layoffs or other periods of reduction older developers with experience may find themselves too qualified for the types of positions that other game development companies seek given the salaries and compensations offered 47 48 contract workers some of the larger video game developers and publishers have also engaged contract workers through agencies to help add manpower in game development in part to alleviate crunch time from employees contractors are brought on for a fixed period and generally work similar hours as full time staff members assisting across all areas of video game development but as contractors do not get any benefits such as paid time off or health care from the employer they also are typically not credited on games that they work on for this reason the practice itself is legal and common in other engineering and technology areas and generally it is expected that this is meant to lead into a full time position or otherwise the end of the contract but more recently its use in the video game industry has been compared to microsoft s past use of permatemp contract workers that were continually renewed and treated for all purposes as employees but received no benefits while microsoft has waned from the practice the video game industry has adapted it more frequently around 10 of the workforce in video games is estimated to be from contract labor 49 50 unionization see also unionization in the tech sector similar to other tech industries video game developers are typically not unionized this is a result of the industry being driven more by creativity and innovation rather than production the lack of distinction between management and employees in the white collar area and the pace at which the industry moves that makes union actions difficult to plan out 51 however when situations related to crunch time become prevalent in the news there have typically been followup discussions towards the potential to form a union 51 a survey performed by the international game developers association in 2014 found that more than half of the 2 200 developers surveyed favored unionization 52 a similar survey of over 4 000 game developers run by the game developers conference in early 2019 found that 47 of respondents felt the video game industry should unionize 53 in 2016 voice actors in the screen actors guild american federation of television and radio artists sag aftra union doing work for video games struck several major publishers demanding better royalty payments and provisions related to the safety of their vocal performances when their union s standard contract was up for renewal the voice actor strike lasted for over 300 days into 2017 before a new deal was made between sag aftra and the publishers while this had some effects on a few games within the industry it brought to the forefront the question of whether video game developers should unionize 51 54 55 a grassroots movement game workers unite was established around 2017 to discuss and debate issues related to unionization of game developers the group came to the forefront during the march 2018 game developers conference by holding a roundtable discussion with the international game developers association igda the professional association for developers statements made by the igda s current executive director jen maclean relating to igda s activities had been seen by as anti union and game workers unite desired to start a conversation to lay out the need for developers to unionize 56 in the wake of the sudden near closure of telltale games in september 2018 the movement again called out for the industry to unionize the movement argued that telltale had not given any warning to its 250 employees let go having hired additional staff as recently as a week prior and left them without pensions or health care options it was further argued that the studio considered this a closure rather than layoffs as to get around failure to notify required by the worker adjustment and retraining notification act of 1988 preceding layoffs 57 the situation was argued to be exploitive as telltale had been known to force its employees to frequently work under crunch time to deliver its games 58 by the end of 2018 a united kingdom trade union game workers unite uk an affiliate of the game workers unite movement had been legally established 59 following activision blizzard s financial report for the previous quarter in february 2019 the company said that they would be laying off around 775 employees about 8 of their workforce despite having record profits for that quarter further calls for unionization came from this news including the afl cio writing an open letter to video game developers encouraging them to unionize 60 in january 2020 game workers unite and the communications workers of america established a new campaign to push for unionization of video game developers the campaign to organize digital employees code in january 2020 initial efforts for code were aimed to determine what approach to unionization would be best suited for the video game industry whereas some video game employees believe they should follow the craft based model used by sag aftra which would unionize based on job function others feel an industry wide union regardless of job position would be better 61 starting in 2021 several smaller game studios in the united states began efforts to unionize these mostly involved teams doing quality assurance rather than developers these studios included three qa studios under blizzard entertainment raven software blizzard albany and proletariat and zenimax media s qa team microsoft which had previously acquired zenimax and announced plans to acquire blizzard via the acquisition of activision blizzard stated it supported these unionization efforts 62 after this acquisition the employees of bethesda game studios part of zenimax under microsoft unionized under the communications workers of america cwa in july 2024 63 over 500 employees within blizzard entertainment s world of warcraft division also unionized with cwa that same month 64 similarly blizzard s overwatch team unionized in may 2025 65 raven software blizzard s story and franchise development team and blizzard s diablo team separately voted for unionization in august 2025 66 67 68 and the hearthstone and warcraft rumble teams followed with their vote in october 2025 by this point over 2000 blizzard employees had become unionzized 69 the union contract for blizzard employees was formally put in place by september 2026 70 sweden presents a unique case where nearly all parts of its labor force including white collar jobs such as video game development may engage with labor unions under the employment protection act often through collective bargaining agreements developer dice had reached its union agreements in 2004 71 paradox interactive became one of the first major publishers to support unionization efforts in june 2020 with its own agreements to cover its swedish employees within two labor unions unionen and saco 72 in australia video game developers could join other unions but the first video game specific union game workers unite australia was formed in december 2021 under professionals australia to become active in 2022 73 in canada in a historic move video game workers in edmonton unanimously voted to unionize for the first time in june 2022 74 in january 2023 after not being credited in the last of us hbo adaptation bruce straley called for unionization of the video game industry 75 he told the los angeles times someone who was part of the co creation of that world and those characters isn t getting a credit or a nickel for the work they put into it maybe we need unions in the video game industry to be able to protect creators 76 an industry wide union the united video game workers cwa uva cwa for north american workers was announced in march 2025 with support from the 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