unions

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Mass redundancies in the video game industry, with thousands of developers losing their jobs, have led to a record surge in workers joining unions, organisers have told the Observer.

In October 2023 alone, membership jumped by 12%, a month after Epic, the developer of Fortnite, announced it was cutting hundreds of jobs as the studio was “spending way more money than we earn”.

But studios and publishers, both in the UK and around the world, are now making cutbacks to compensate for an underwhelming growth after a pandemic-driven boom for video games failed to continue.

Globally, those cuts included the gaming giant Electronic Arts (EA), which is behind major series such as Fifa, Battlefield and The Sims.

The union was first formed five years ago amid growing concerns among video games workers over precarious working conditions, endemic sexism at certain studios and constant excess overtime (a practice known as the “crunch”).

“It has been difficult to hear of the job losses in the video games sector over the recent few months,” said Ukie co-CEO Daniel Wood.

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