Over 100 staff at Just Cause developers Avalanche have unionised
Over 100 staff at Just Cause developers Avalanche have unionised
Agreement will take effect from this time next year.
Why did they do it?
Just coz.
Seriously though great news and well done to them.
When the first game came out I legitimately thought it was called just cause like "just because". Took me a while.
Actually huge. A lot of tech companies in Sweden aren't unionized, despite the high unionization rate in other industries.
It was a shock to me when briefly changing industry to gaming/e-sports. When I asked about collective agreement during the interview I was met with "Oh no, we don't need that here. We have so many other benefits". Should have recognised that as the red flag that it is.
I don't give a fuck about cheaper gym memberships or good deals on furniture compared to collective bargaining.
This is why despite record sales, studios went on a firing spree. They knew things were good, so they needed to get rid of the people who could start a union, before those pesky workers demand a fair share.
Everyone should be unionized, especially those who work for corporations that rake in billions in profits
The weird thing about a videogame union is that, on its own, it is capable of producing and releasing finished products.
Yeah, happens often enough that a group of devs leave one of the big companies to found their own studio. Those are usually some pretty senior devs, too...
I'd be okay with another Just Cause game down the line.
Honestly we should just go to space in the next one, too. Imagine you're Rico on the moon, fighting space dictators with your grappling hook and low gravity.
Wtf does a game studio even do once that happens? They likely can't do mass layoffs or 70 hour crunch workweeks anymore. It seems like those are the only 2 things game studios make the news for besides releasing games. Their leadership is going to implode.