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Employees at Bethesda Game Studios Unionize

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Re: Employees at Bethesda Game Studios Unionize

#11

Post by swaginator »

gruez wrote: post #7
swaginator wrote: post #2

I imagine that the closing of Arkane studios Austin was a big motivator for worker's to unionize. They created successful games and Microsoft shut them down for pretty much no reason. I am kinda on the periphery of the gaming scene in Austin and that was a huge deal when it happened.

>I imagine that the closing of Arkane studios Austin was a big motivator for worker's to unionize. They created successful games and Microsoft shut them down for pretty much no reason. And how would it be different with a union? Hold a strike to force the company to keep the studio open?

If one studio closes you can imagine the screws are tightening at the others. Unionization arguably wouldn't help for studios closing, but it would help push back against crunch and other labor abuses.

Re: Employees at Bethesda Game Studios Unionize

#12

Post by swaginator »

ecshafer wrote: post #5
swaginator wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With how expensive AAA development has gotten maybe that’s the stakes now, and a reason so many are taking the modern Hollywood playbook of churning out sequels and remasters. The studio was owned by M$ though. There's no reason they couldn't have kept all those people in-house and just moved them on to some game with a tried and true IP attached to it.

Is there "no reason"? I want to steelman microsoft's position here, and I can find many reasons: 1. The financial loss of the product (Redfall) was large enough that keeping that business unit itself was a risk. They need to show wallstreet that something is being done. 2. While there are talented people at the studio, they are unable as a corporation to be able to figure out what went wrong, ie who do they need to f…

Maybe "no reason" was a bad word choice. I would say that regardless of the reason, it doesn't matter to workers. What matters to workers is to have as much power as possible over their own situation. The simple calculus is that if you see another studio closing, for any reason, you recognize that this will be used as a cudgel by management and executives to work you and your colleagues even harder. When the true nature of the relationship between employee and worker is revealed, unionization is the obvious response.
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