this post was submitted on 08 Apr 2024
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How do we stop the next round of games industry mass layoffs? (www.rockpapershotgun.com)
submitted 7 months ago by nanoUFO@sh.itjust.works to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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[–] TheQuietCroc@lemmy.world 28 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The only way to stop this is to stop working for the companies that do it. That's never gonna happen though, people gotta eat.

[–] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 3 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Wait so your answer to "how do I stop my company from firing me?" is "Quit" ?

I'll give you points for being technically correct (the best kind of correct), but I don't think it's really in the spirit of the question.

[–] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 10 points 7 months ago

Well, instead of working at Blizzard you should work at Mom and Pop's Games Inc. Or make your own company with blackjack and hookers.

[–] stardust@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Some industries are known for being predatory though, so it's hard for workers to change anything when an industry can prey on an endless pool of applicants lining up to pursue their passion.

And consumers are not reliable beyond bad press. Strong unions are the best hope, but that is much easier said than done.

[–] Cyberspark@sh.itjust.works 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Even unions can't entirely stop mass layoffs. "we won't work" isn't much of a threat when you're being fired.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but normally, if the union does its job, the employee that aren't fired don't work as well.

The only way to make a company change is to hurt their bottomline.

[–] Cyberspark@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, but in the numbers we're seeing that's of limited weight in negotiation. I'm not saying unions are bad, just this is one situation they struggle to counter.

[–] Croquette@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 months ago

Here, if there are enough workers, then they don't need to join a bigger, external union because they have enough weight to change things.

Otherwise, smaller companies where there isn't a lot of workers, they can join a bigger union that has a lot more weight.

A union isn't magical, but it's a great first step towards better conditions. But taking that first step is hard because workers have a lot to lose, especially if working in the US.

[–] MNByChoice@midwest.social 2 points 7 months ago

Some sort of employee ownedgame company?

[–] Cyberspark@sh.itjust.works 23 points 7 months ago

These companies aren't in the business of making and selling games they're in the business of increasing company valuation on the stock market. You can't convince them not to do mass firing, it's one of the fastest and easiest ways to cut costs and rapidly increase valuation. You'd need the law to protect the employees.

[–] Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world 9 points 7 months ago

Worker owned game studios

[–] Starb3an@sh.itjust.works 6 points 7 months ago

Eat the rich

[–] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 6 points 7 months ago

I think it's going to happen, but only because the idiots in charge don't know how to make games anymore. I think they're going to squeeze so hard for short term profits that the companies will delay games for long periods of times, and honestly we'll probably see some studios start to fold.

Creative work and investments don't usually go hand in hand. CDPR seems to have changed their tune, it sounds like they're telling investors to pound sand, at least in a way of "look what happened with cyberpunk. We listened to you and that's what happened. So either let us do our thing or you can sell and leave"

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 7 months ago

But from indie and AA studios. If they get really good funding, they can hire those who are laid off, and since they're usually private companies, they have no incentive to do layoffs.

[–] Grass@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Pirate those games. The workers have already been paid and any money you put in just goes to the corpos and they will feel even more validated even though they were born feeling validated already.

[–] lost_faith@lemmy.ca 1 points 7 months ago

That was my thought, or gather the names of these mass layoff companies and do not buy their next title or 2. Again, the devs are already paid